Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press exposed yet another disturbing Chinese trade secret when it reported that some manufacturers in China are making children’s jewelry with the highly toxic metal cadmium. Children’s jewelry now joins the growing list of dangerous and sometimes deadly products pouring into the United States from China – a list that includes toys covered with lead paint, pet food and baby formula tainted with melamine, sulfuric drywall that has ruined thousands of homes, and other poorly made or defective merchandise.

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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is pulling items of children’s jewelry known or suspected to be manufactured with high levels of toxic cadmium from store shelves. The move follows an Associated Press investigation published earlier this week which found some China-based manufacturers were creating children’s jewelry with varying amounts of cadmium — a heavy medal considered by the federal government to be one of the most toxic substances on earth.

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On the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s priority list of the 275 most toxic substances in the environment, the heavy metal cadmium is ranked seventh. Unfortunately, in an investigative report, the Associated Press found that cadmium is being used in large quantities to make children’s jewelry and other products that are sold in the United States. The country of origin for almost all of these products is China.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Texas Department of State Health Services are warning consumers, especially those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, to avoid a traditional remedy for morning sickness known as Nzu because it contains high levels of lead and arsenic, which can lead to adverse effects of the unborn child’s brain and nervous system and increase one’s risk of cancers of the urinary bladder, lungs and skin.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced yesterday that RC2 Corp. of Oak Brook, Illinois has agreed to pay a $1.25 million civic penalty for importing toys to the United States that violated the federal lead paint ban. RC2 is the importer and seller of Thomas & Friends ™ Wooden Railway toys.

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To help educate parents about toy safety, Consumer Product Safety CommissionChairman Inez Tenenbaum held a town-hall style meeting in New York City. Discussions centered on new federal safety rules that raise the standards for toys and help protect children from unnecessary harm.

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The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission announced that it has hit Mattel, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Fischer-Price with the third largest civil penalty in CPSC history for importing and selling toys containing illegal amounts of lead. The toy manufacturers agreed to pay the $2.3 million penalty, which was the highest of its kind for violations involving the importation or distribution of a regulated product.

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The University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) and Children’s Hospital will be named as a “Lead Center of Excellence” by the Sarah Jane Brain Project, a national organization devoted to expanding research and awareness of Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (PTBI), which is the leading cause of death and disability for children 15 years old and younger.

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What is the most common cause of death and disability for children and adolescents? According to the Centers for Disease Control, the answer is traumatic brain injury (TBI). Researchers are now finding that for those children who survive a blow to the head or even sustain a mild concussion, the effects of TBI can persist for years. Because the brains of children and adolescents are in the developmental stages, TBI can impede proper mental development, leading to psychological disabilities or a combination of mental disabilities.

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If it’s not lead in paint or melamine in dog food, then perhaps it’s poisonous drywall? The latest batch of toxic Chinese imports – some 550 million pounds of highly sulfuric drywall – has found its way into homes throughout the U.S. and even Canada. The cheap Chinese drywall flooded into the U.S. during the building boom, beginning in 2004, and peaked as the bustling economy and Hurricane Katrina put a strain on domestically manufactured drywall. Most of the affected homes appear to be in Florida, but newly constructed homes in several states and beyond are also affected.

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