Health Risk Assessment: Heavy Metals (Lead, Cadmium and Nickel) in Jewellery (Oral and Dermal Contact)

Overview

This ESR client report for the New Zealand Ministry of Health develops a generic risk assessment for incidental oral and dermal exposure to lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and nickel (Ni) in jewelry. It is not a New Zealand occurrence survey; the report explicitly says no New Zealand jewelry recall data and no New Zealand occurrence/prevalence data were available. The quantitative sections summarize overseas metal-content, bioaccessibility, and risk-assessment studies, then interpret those studies for children and adults who mouth, swallow, or wear jewelry.

Key numbers

• Report identity: ESR client report FW22035, prepared for the Ministry of Health in November 2022 and peer reviewed by Dr Jeff Fowles.
• Scope: the report restricts the current assessment to Pb, Cd, and Ni, even though other metals have occasionally been examined in jewelry.
• Product definition: jewelry includes decorative items such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks, attached to the body or clothes. Low-cost jewelry may be made from metals or plastic and may use recycled batteries or other recycled materials.
• New Zealand data gap: the report states that there have been no New Zealand jewelry recalls due to heavy-metal contamination and that occurrence or prevalence data for metals in New Zealand jewelry are not available.

Metal-content and bioaccessibility studies summarized in Table 1

All units below are copied from the report. These are secondary study summaries, not new ESR measurements.

Regulations summarized by the report

• New Zealand: the Product Safety Standards (Children’s Toys) Regulations 2005 set safety standards for children’s toys and jewelry, but the report says those regulations do not address chemical compositional issues. AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2021 specifies migration limits from toy materials; for toy materials except modelling clay and finger paint, the report lists Cd 75 mg/kg and Pb 90 mg/kg.
• Canada: children’s jewelry under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act and Children’s Jewellery Regulations must not contain more than 90 mg/kg total Pb and 130 mg/kg Cd, applying to all materials and coatings.
• United States, children’s jewelry (ASTM F2923-14/F2923-20): Pb in accessible components other than paint and surface coatings <=100 ppm or mg/kg; Cd in accessible plastic/polymeric small parts <=300 ppm content and <=75 ppm extractable; Cd in accessible metal small parts <=300 ppm content and <=200 ppm extractable; Cd in accessible metal or plastic/polymeric components that are not small parts but may be mouthed <=300 ppm content and <=18 ppm extractable; Ni release <=0.2 ug/cm2 per week for post assemblies inserted into pierced ears or other pierced body parts; Ni release <=0.5 ug/cm2 per week for direct and prolonged skin contact.
• United States, adult jewelry (ASTM F2999-19): Pb in electroplated metal <6.0%, non-plated metal <1.5%, plastic/rubber/stone/PVC <200 mg/kg, paint coatings <600 mg/kg, and other materials <600 mg/kg; Cd in metal or plastic/polymeric materials <1.5%; extractable Cd and Ni release as for children’s jewelry.
• EU/EEA REACH: Cd in metal beads and other metal jewelry components <0.01%; Ni release from piercing post assemblies <0.2 ug/cm2 per week; Ni release from direct/prolonged skin-contact articles <=0.5 ug/cm2 per week; Pb in any individual jewelry part <0.05%.
• Brazil: Ordinance No. 43 of 22 January 2016 restricts jewelry and jewelry formulations intended for skin contact to Cd below 0.01% by weight and Pb below 0.03% by weight.

Recall and case-report numbers summarized by the report

The report names recalled products in Table 2. This page keeps recalled-product identities out of value-linked rows and reports category-level recall facts only:

• United States: more than 18 million items withdrawn from the market because of Pb contamination between 2007 and 2018 via 174 product recalls.
• United States 2010: over 12 million children’s products and jewelry items recalled via seven recalls due to elevated total Cd concentrations.
• Lead fatality case: a 4-year-old child died after ingesting a heart-shaped metallic charm containing 99.1% lead; CPSC announced a voluntary recall of 300,000 heart-shaped charm bracelets in 2006.
• Lead poisoning case: a 4-year-old child developed abdominal cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea after ingesting a medallion pendant containing 38.8% Pb, 3.6% Sb, and 0.5% tin (Sn).
• Oregon case report: a necklace medallion swallowed by a child contained 39.11% lead, and a similar medallion from the same lot contained 44% lead; a related state recall involved approximately 1.4 million metal toy necklaces.
• Another case report: metal beads in an amulet had total Pb 450,000 mg/kg (45%).
• Australia 2020-2021: the report identifies two recalls of children’s jewelry because of high Cd levels and says it is unclear whether those products were also sold in New Zealand.

Exposure scenarios and risk-characterization summaries

• Exposure routes considered: adults - dermal exposure from whole jewelry; children - dermal and oral exposure from jewelry or parts. Inhalation is not considered relevant.
• Child mouthing context: the report states mouthing behavior frequency peaks at 6-12 months with mouthing duration in the range 39-66 min/day.
• Danish EPA bioaccessible-concentration and exposure estimates from Table 8:

The Ni child-oral range is copied as printed (6.5 - 4.5) and appears internally reversed or truncated in the source.

• Cui et al. 2015 child CDI/HIs from Table 12: Cd saliva CDI 0.003 - 1.0 ug/kg bw per day with HIsaliva 0.016 - 3.0; Cd gastrointestinal CDI 0.001 - 0.44 with HIgastro 0.021 - 0.89. Pb saliva CDI 0.3 - 5.0 with HIsaliva 0.08 - 0.5; Pb gastrointestinal CDI 0.1 - 0.7 with HIgastro (3.0E-05) - 0.19. Ni saliva CDI 0.05 - 800 with HIsaliva 0.005 - 80; Ni gastrointestinal CDI 0.0002 - 1183 with HIgastro (2.17E-05) - 118.
• Guney and Zagury 2014: ingestion of jewelry parts or pieces gave unacceptable HIs in the range 1.1 - 75 for Cd, Pb, or Ni; saliva mobilization produced HI >1 for three jewelry items, two for Cd and one for Ni, with HI range 1.1 - 6.1; ingestion of scraped-off material had HI < 1 for all samples, metals, and age categories.
• Pouzar et al. 2017: Cd release into alkaline sweat 3.2 - 62 ug/cm2 per week with MADD 3.56 x 10-4 to 4.54 x 10-3 ug/kg bw/day; acidic sweat 3.5 - 253 ug/cm2 per week with MADD 2.00 x 10-4 to 1.86 x 10-2 ug/kg bw/day. Adult RCR values were 7.4 x 10-3 to 1.1 x 10-1% for alkaline sweat and 5.0 x 10-3 to 4.64 x 10-1% for acidic sweat.
• The report’s overall conclusion: contamination of jewelry with Pb, Cd, and Ni at levels reported in overseas studies may present a health risk to children and adults after oral exposure, while dermal Cd risk was inconsistent across studies.

Methods (brief)

This is a desk-based ESR/Ministry of Health risk assessment rather than a laboratory survey. It reviews jewelry definitions, overseas regulations, recalls, case reports, prior metal-content and bioaccessibility studies, and existing risk assessments for Pb, Cd, and Ni in jewelry. The summarized studies used XRF, ED-XRF, FAAS, ICP-MS, ICP-OES, artificial saliva, 0.07 M HCl, acidic sweat, and alkaline sweat depending on study. Speciation is not reported for Pb, Cd, or Ni; the report treats them as elemental total content or extractable/released elemental metal. It explicitly notes that the JECFA Pb PTWI used in older studies has been withdrawn and that Pb exposure should be as low as possible.

Related evidence

• Children's Jewelry
• Piercing Post Assemblies
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Nickel

Update history

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