AP quotes Jessica Frohman, co-chair of the Sierra Club's national toxics committee as saying on Sunday, "Parents still need to be vigilant about the recalls on products marketed to children that might contain lead, and take those products away from children as soon as they are recalled."
The process, which is a part of a settlement EPA signed Friday with the Sierra Club and another advocacy group, Improving Kids' Environment, is expected to be in full force by May this year. Lead is present in children's necklaces, bracelets, rings and other jewelry.
Lead is a poisonous metal that can damage nervous connections (especially in young children) and cause blood and brain disorders. Long term exposure to lead or its salts (especially soluble salts or the strong oxidant lead oxide) can cause nephropathy, and colic-like abdominal pains.
The sources of exposure includes food and soil, solid waste, coal, oil, iron and steel production, lead smelters and tobacco smoke.
While the EPA can ban a substance such as lead, only the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission or CPSC can ban a product that contains lead, the AP reports.
In one case of death by lead poisoning, 4-year-old Jarnell Brown of Minneapolis died last year from acute lead poisoning by swallowing part of a heart-shaped charm bracelet distributed by Reebok International Ltd.
Following his death, Reebok recalled 300,000 of the silver-colored, Chinese-made bracelets found to be 90 percent lead that the company had given away with its shoes. However, the commission's biggest-ever recall was in 2004 and involved 150 million pieces of children's jewelry with unsafe lead levels.
