NEWS

California Updates the Restriction of Lead & Cadmium in Jewelry

The governor of the State of California approved Senate Bill No.647 on September 27, 2019. This bill is about the revision of the existing laws relating to the materials authorized to be used to make jewelry and children’s jewelry. In the bill, four important changes are included, they are the definition of “children”, the content limits of the restricted hazardous substances (lead and cadmium), the addition of authorized test methods for testing lead in children’ jewelry, and the imposition of local program for certification. The bill will completely become operative from June 1, 2020.

The changes of the definition and the content limits of the restricted substances are specified as below:
1.the definition of “children” means persons under 15 years of age, not 6 years of age and younger;
2.the lead content limits for electroplated metal, unplated metal, and a dye or surface coating change from 6%,1.5%,0.006% to 0.05% of lead by weight;
3.the lead content limit for children’s jewelry changes to 0.009% of lead by weight for surface coatings and 0.01% of lead by weight for all other components;
4.the cadmium limit for surface coatings on children’s jewelry changes to 0.0075% of soluble cadmium by weight.

For more information, please check
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB647