CADMIUM CONFUSION: Do Consumers Need Protection?

In the past year, cadmium has emerged as a major media topic due to a flurry of high-profile product recalls triggered by cadmium in jewelry, toys, paints, and other common items. In spring 2010, companies targeting a preteen market—including Claire’s Stores, Wal-Mart, and Dress Barn (which owns Justice and Limited Too girls’ apparel stores)—recalled necklaces, earrings, and bracelets after discovering the products contained substantial levels of cadmium. Then, in June, McDonald’s recalled 12 million “Shrek” drinking glasses. By summer’s end, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had received a petition under section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act regarding cadmium in consumer products, notably children’s jewelry.1 The petitioners contended that children are particularly at risk for oral exposure to cadmium and requested the EPA require health and safety data on cadmium compounds in consumer products and regulate their use in toy metal jewelry. Earlier in the year, various consumer groups had asked the EPA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ban cadmium from children’s products, using the same rules applied to lead, unless a safe level for the metal could be established. Yet in October the CPSC announced it would not at that time impose mandatory limits on the amount of cadmium that can be used in children’s items but instead recommended “acceptable daily intake” levels for the heavy metal.2 A bemused public read in newspapers that “Shrek glasses were OK.”3 Amid the legislative push-and-pull, consumers are left wondering: what is cadmium, anyway? Why is it showing up in so many products? And is it a threat or not? The scientific evidence strongly implicates cadmium as a major human toxicant. And although items such as those recalled in 2010 do not represent the worst sources of exposure for most people, any cadmium exposure should be avoided.