State fines chain store for toxic jewelry
Toolbox
By Bruce Edwards STAFF WRITER - Published: February 9, 2010
The state has fined Dollar Tree $100,000 for selling jewelry containing high amounts of lead and cadmium in violation of the Vermont Consumer Fraud Act, the Attorney General's office announced Monday.
The settlement also requires Dollar Tree to cease selling jewelry and adhere with legal limits on the amount of lead and cadmium in consumer products.
The company has six stores in Vermont, including Rutland, Bennington and Brattleboro.
Assistant Attorney General Elliot Burg said while both toxic substances are harmful to humans, children under the age of 12 are particularly vulnerable.
Burg said the state became aware in late 2007 that jewelry items on the shelves of Dollar Tree stores contained high levels of lead and cadmium. The state tested several items, including earrings, a necklace, a digital watch and a ponytail holder, and determined the items contained very high concentrations of one or both metals.
"Lead concentrations ranged from 165 to over 1,600 times the current legal limit and cadmium levels were also extraordinarily high," according to the Attorney General's office.
Burg said the federal limit on lead content in the body of a product is 300 parts per million and 90 parts per million on surface coating. The surface coating cadmium limit is 75 parts per million. He said there is no limit on cadmium content in the body of a product.
At the time the products were on Dollar Tree store shelves in Vermont, there was no specific state or federal law that regulated metals content. The state didn't enact a Lead in Consumer Products Law until 2008, with the federal government following suit with its own standards that same year, he said.
Burg said the state pursued the case under the state Consumer Fraud Act.
"We view the offer of toxic products to be an unfair trade practice," he said.
He said most of the jewelry in question was likely imported from places like China.
The Virginia-based chain has not sold any jewelry at its Vermont stores since early 2008, Burg said. He added that it's his understanding that Dollar Tree no longer sells jewelry in any of its stores nationwide.
He also said the Attorney General's office continues to make product buys in stores to ensure that the federal metals content standards in consumer products is being adhered to.
In 2008, Ganz U.S.A., a Woodbridge, Ontario, distributor of consumer gift items, including imported jewelry and other metal products, agreed to pay the state $215,000 to settle a lawsuit over the sale of merchandise containing high amounts of lead to local retail stores.
Of the $100,000 Dollar Tree fine, $50,000 is earmarked for children's health programs through the Vermont Department of Health.
The Attorney General's office advises to keep "all cheap metal jewelry away from their young children."
Burg called metals like lead and cadmium invisible toxins.
"Between mouthing behavior, particularly on the part of infants, and smaller body size and physical development going on, all of those factors cause heavy metals to be more toxic to young children," he said.
bruce.edwards@rutlandherald.com
34