Chinese jewelry contains extremely toxic substances

After a period of little attention, Chinese cosmetic jewelry containing toxic substances continues to dominate the market.

On March 14, the Market Management Department of Ho Chi Minh City announced the results of testing 3 samples of plated jewelry necklaces seized at 3 stores on An Binh Street (Ward 5, District 5) due to lack of invoices and documents, being smuggled goods from China.

Samples of jewelry plated with lead and cadmium are detained pending destruction.

Contains extremely toxic substances

The results of the testing conducted by the Technical Center for Standards, Metrology and Quality 3 (Quatest 3) showed that all three samples contained lead from 0.003% to 0.015% (equivalent to 30 mg/kg to 150 mg/kg) and cadmium (a heavy metal ranked 7th among 275 extremely toxic substances) with a content of less than 0.001%. The three tested samples were part of a shipment of nearly 12,000 units of products, equivalent to 145.5 kg. The Market Management Agency has decided to administratively fine these three businesses VND 21 million and confiscate and destroy all evidence.

In addition, there is another case where the Market Management Agency is waiting for the test results from Quatest 3 for a shipment of 4,700 necklaces of various types, weighing 16 kg, due to similar violations.

Observations on the evidence samples show large Chinese characters and some with English characters bearing the brands Stainless Steel Jewelry, Xuping Jewelry, Loe Jewelry with the line “Made in China” printed on them but no information about the place of manufacture. Some products have the warning line “children don’t touch” (keep out of reach of children) but many items have no labels at all. Many of these types of jewelry are gold and white with beautiful, eye-catching designs.

Sold everywhere

On the same day, surveying the market, we were surprised to see similar items being sold everywhere, especially on the streets near wholesale markets such as Binh Tay (District 6), An Dong (District 5), school areas and souvenir shops or places selling beauty products for the common people. While at the market, necklaces, bracelets, and rings are placed in bunches, at souvenir shops they are displayed separately and luxuriously. At BB store on Nguyen Trai street (District 5), gold-plated necklaces are listed at sky-high prices from 120,000 to 250,000 VND/strand, bracelets are also over 100,000 VND/piece, rings are from 70,000 to 80,000 VND/piece. The staff here said that these are genuine Thai gold-plated products, which take at least a week to fade. Notably, many items were identical to the seized shipment, but the labels had been changed to “Made in Vietnam” or “Made in Korea” but there was no information about the manufacturer’s address, most likely the labels had been changed before being delivered to the store.

Similarly, TF store, also on Nguyen Trai street, specializes in plated jewelry, the listed price is not cheap, a small pendant the size of a finger costs 50,000 VND/piece. The store owner said that the customers are mainly young people and children.

Mr. Phan Hoan Kiem, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade and Head of the HCM City Market Management Department, said that sending samples for testing was due to the discovery of similar violations in the past (in 2010). Now that this product has appeared on the market again, samples were sent for testing to warn consumers not to use it as well as sellers not to trade in this product anymore. "In the near future, the Market Management force will continue to check this product to prevent smuggling and ensure the health of consumers," Mr. Kiem emphasized.

Thanks to warning from the US

Although not children's toys, plated jewelry is popular with children because of its eye-catching colors and much cheaper price than the real thing. Therefore, it is not impossible that children will hold or suck on these types of jewelry and be poisoned. Therefore, in 2010, a university in the US tested cadmium toxicity on cheap metal jewelry from China and warned against buying and using these products.

Based on the above information, in early 2010, the HCM City Market Management Department conducted a massive inspection and seized tens of thousands of units of plated jewelry smuggled from China. After a period of lull, this item has now "re-exported".

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Jewelry Association, said that for all types of plated goods, also known as fake jewelry, lead must be used in the manufacturing process! This is also a substance that children must limit their exposure to./.

According to VOV