Princess/Frog necklaces being recalled for dangerous metal content


Associated Press

Federal consumer-safety regulators announced Friday the recall of “The Princess and the Frog” pendants sold at Wal-Mart stores because of high levels of the toxic metal cadmium, an unprecedented action that reflects concerns of an emerging threat in children’s jewelry.

The recall affects two products, about 55,000 items in total, sold exclusively by the world’s biggest retailer for $5 each. The action was taken voluntarily by Rhode Island-based jewelry company FAF Inc., which did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which disclosed the recall, had been testing for cadmium in children’s metal jewelry for several weeks in response to an Associated Press investigation that reported high levels of the known carcinogen in the Disney movie-themed pendants and other children’s metal jewelry imported from China.

The Walt Disney Co. released a letter Friday it sent its vendors and licensees that sets a zero-tolerance policy for cadmium in any children’s jewelry bearing its brand. That is far stricter than federal regulations, which not only don’t require testing for cadmium in children’s jewelry but also set no upper limit for how much a product can contain.

Disney is now requiring that all products be tested for cadmium and that a detection means production and distribution of the product should be stopped.

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