Abotex: Corporate News

A silent danger still unheeded --- High doses of lead poisoning can cause coma or even death Federal government has no regulations to prohibit sales

Reproduced with the permission of the writer:
Robin Harvey
Toronto Star
1,437 words
13 April 2003
The Toronto Star
Ontario
A19
English
Copyright (c) 2003 The Toronto Star

Lesley Svendsen's voice chokes as she recalls her young daughter's torment during the weeks she was unsuspectingly being poisoned by a treasured necklace.

Lyndsey, 5, became hyperactive and agitated, threw temper tantrums and at times went "out of control," all within a few weeks of the time she began wearing the costume jewellery, her mother says. It was eventually found to be 100 per cent lead.

"We didn't know for weeks what it was," Svendsen says. "My husband just discovered by accident that it was lead when the clasp broke and she (Lyndsey) asked him to fix it."

By the time they suspected the cause, Lyndsey's blood-lead levels were elevated to just under 10 micrograms per decilitre of blood - the level at which a child is deemed to be suffering from clinical lead poisoning.

That was five years ago, and today Lyndsey still has learning difficulties. The 10-year-old has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a disorder believed to be related to autism, which causes motor delays, clumsiness, social interaction problems and behaviour problems, although no definitive link to lead poisoning has been found. Shortly after the incident, Health Canada issued a national warning about the specific necklace that harmed Lyndsey.

But Svendsen has been lobbying ever since for laws that would stop the sale in Canada of jewellery containing high levels of lead.

However, in recent weeks, a Star survey of low-cost jewellery products found the majority had high levels of lead - some as high as 93 per cent. Health Canada's recommended level is less than .06 per cent.

With one exception, our survey found no labels attached to the jewellery explaining how to contact the manufacturer or importer. Only one necklace had a label that warned it contained lead and was not recommended for children younger than 15.

Other distressing facts:

No level of lead is deemed safe for a child, and experts say even the levels accepted by the federal government are too high.

Health effects from lead exposure are now viewed as virtually permanent. Lead can be stored in bones, soft tissue and organs for decades and can leach out to wreak havoc on body systems a quarter-century after it was ingested.

The issue of lead in consumer products, especially those aimed at children, still stymies regulators. Canada has been trying to develop a framework for regulations for three years, and it may be years more before any guidelines are completed, a Health Canada spokesperson says. At present the government can only ask businesses to voluntarily stop selling most consumer products containing high lead.

In the past decade, there have been many government warnings about lead in products aimed at children. There is no requirement that imported products not contain hazardous levels of lead. The importing and labelling system is such that many retailers have no idea where lead-contaminated products originate.

Unlike many U.S. states, Canada does not routinely screen children for lead. Though acute lead poisoning is rare and easy to diagnose, the subtler effects of long-term exposure at lower levels may be experienced by thousands of children, experts say.

"It is like selling poison to children," says Brian Evenchick, of the Canadian Jewellers' Association. Evenchick's jewellery company has adopted a no-lead policy, and he has been consulting with the government on its proposed new lead risk-reduction strategy. The Star collected 13 samples from products sold at discount, gift and novelty stores in Toronto. They included necklaces, pendants, bracelets, rings, hair clips and key chains, all priced at less than $3 and sold next to toys and other items marketed to children.

First, we tested them using a home lead test kit called Lead Inspector, made by Abotex. 

The tests found that nine of the samples leached significant amounts of lead. To confirm our test results, we took four samples - three that had tested positive and one that tested negative - to a University of Toronto lab for analysis. The three that tested positive in the home test came back showing they were made of 93, 80 and 62 per cent lead respectively.

The lab analysis confirmed that the sample that tested negative in the home test had no lead in it.

The jewellery "is available pretty much in every dollar store you visit," says Charles Ethier, director-general of Health Canada's product safety program.

This despite the fact that the federal government twice wrote to 7,855 manufacturers, distributors, importers and retailers of costume jewellery - in April, 1999, and December, 2000 - asking them to stop selling such products or label them as a hazard.

In the summer of 2000, Health Canada surveyed 95 jewellery items intended for children. It found that 69 per cent contained lead, in amounts from 50 to 100 per cent.

But Health Canada didn't issue any general public advisory about the problem until Jan. 8, 2001, even though it had known about the hazards for more than two years.

Short-term exposure to high lead levels can cause vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, coma or even death. Long-term exposure to lower levels results in less noticeable but still serious symptoms. They include anemia and nervous system damage causing impaired mental function. Loss of appetite, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability and headache are also symptoms.

Lead is especially hazardous to children because their bodies aren't fully developed and they absorb more of it. Children's growing nervous systems and organs are especially affected.

Kathleen Cooper, of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, has been lobbying the government for years about lead.

A report by her group and the Ontario College of Family Physicians' environmental health committee says all it takes to damage a child's health is the amount of pure lead that can fit on the head of a pin.

Barbara McElgunn, of the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, says Ottawa is guilty of "absolute foot-dragging" when it comes to lead in children's products, especially considering the links being drawn between environmental toxins and attention deficits, even autism.

Studies have shown that a child who accumulates 10 micrograms per decilitre of blood experiences an 11 per cent drop in IQ, McElgunn says. Two years ago, Arlene Halpenny began to suspect something in the environment was causing her son's learning problems.

The Toronto boy, who is now 9 and attends a special school to improve his cognitive development, had had learning problems since he was 5. But it was two years before he was tested. Halpenny now believes he was exposed to lead from metal in the cheap car toys he played with and frequently mouthed.

The home test used by the Star on three of the boy's toy cars showed they were all leaching lead.

Neither Svendsen nor Halpenny can prove definitively that lead caused their children's problems. But Halpenny wonders, "Why are they allowed to use this material at all if it can harm children? We have to stop this."

Peter Woolford, of the Retail Council of Canada, says his group is ready to implement any changes the government requires. But it's difficult to control the flow and content of low-cost imports because retailers have little idea of their origin.

Bob Armstrong, president of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, says "fly-by-nighter" trading companies that set up shop, move often and operate under a variety of names, cause a problem.

Canada has about 150,000 import companies, but the top 1,000 bring in about 80 per cent of the goods. Keeping track of the rest is next to impossible, Armstrong says. The federal government, Health Canada's Ethier says, aims to have regulations in place for children's products and jewellery by March 31, 2004. It has recognized that dealing with the problem shouldn't be postponed until a general strategy on lead in consumer products is developed - a process that could take years.

Steve Russell/TORONTO STAR Three of these jewellery products, sold at discount, gift and novelty stores in Toronto, contain high levels of lead one of them 93 per cent, a Star survey found. Health Canada's recommended level is less than .06 per cent. CP PHOTO Lesley Svendsen's daughter Lyndsey, 10,still has learning difficulties five years after she developed lead poisoning from a favourite necklace.

Document tor0000020030414dz4d00014

© 2003 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.