Hidden Danger: Investigating Compliance to Lead Standards for Retail Jewelry

Overview

Objectives/Goals My mother owns a shop that sells jewelry. I often visit her there, and notice that some of the items are labeled lead-free. Lead in jewelry is especially hazardous because young children sometimes chew on jewelry and may even swallow small pieces. I decided to investigate whether local stores and small wholesale jewelry vendors complied with the government standards. I hypothesized that larger brand-name retailers might follow regulations more strictly due to their reputations. Methods/Materials I tested 52 pieces of jewelry from ten different suppliers: six large brand name stores (Walmart, Target, Claire's, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, and Dollar Tree) and four small wholesale vendors (Anna Beauty, Beauty Accessories, June, and Girly Jewelry). I documented my results through lead leaching. I used the Lead Inspector lead-detecting solution to evaluate my results. Results According to my findings, 35% of the samples tested contained > 50 ppm leachable lead, which exceeds the 40 ppm government compliance warning level for children's jewelry. None of these samples were labeled with the requires content warning. Approximately 37% of the jewelry from the large brand name stores; including Walmart, Claire's, Marshall's, and Dollar Tree, exceeded 50 ppm leachable lead. Jewelry from Target and TJ Maxx did not contain high levels of lead. Approximately 27% of the jewelry from wholesale vendors (Anna Beauty, Beauty Accesories, June, and Girly Jewelry) contained > 50 ppm leachable lead. Conclusions/Discussion I found 57% of samples from Claire's and 75% of jewelry samples from Dollar Tree contained > 50 ppm leachable lead, which violates state standards for children's jewelry. These results are especially alarming because Claire's, in particular, is a very popular jewelry store for children and adolescents, who are more susceptible to lead exposure than adults. Even more important, one of the jewelry samples from a wholesale vendor that tested over 50 ppm leachable lead level was labeled lead free!

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2016 Product Science (Physical) (Junior Division Only) · Entry J2008

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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