More than 500,000 Chinese-made children’s jewelry has been recalled due to the large amounts of lead found to be contaminating the jewelry.  A number of retailers have pulled their supply of the contaminated jewelry after agreements were reached to stop the sale of these lead-tainted products.  The recall involved more than 507,900 pieces of children’s jewelry in a variety of different stores. 

The investigation is part of an enforcement action carried out by federal regulation authorities in cooperation with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.  Cuomo’s office notified the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission about the possible lead-tainted jewelry.   Products that contain more than .06 percent lead are usually subject to recall.   Some pieces involved in the recall had over 1,000 times this amount.  Much of the jewelry was made in China, while some came from India and Thailand.  However, it is still unclear where the jewelry was manufactured.  Several companies involved in the recall are being forced to pay monetary fines.

Parents are being warned to shop cautiously this holiday season, especially when shopping for children’s jewelry.  In 2006, a young boy died of lead poisoning after swallowing a metal pendant from a charm bracelet.  This also resulted in a wide recall of metal jewelry products. 

Dia Vente Jewellry took its recent new product launch to new levels, the street level. Sending  out six specially designed mobile jewelry stores to the streets of Mumbai, India, Dia Vente hopes to reach a younger urban customer base for it’s silver, steel, brass, copper and rubber jewelry designs.

The brainchild of Hemant Shah, the vans have been specially designed by India’s leading car designer Dilip Chhabria. Shah said at the launch that Chhabria’s reaction to the concept of mobile jewelry outlets was “Out of the world”.

The jewelry itself features cubic zircons, colored crystals, enamel and epoxy accents and retails for Rs 100 to  Rs 4,000 ($2.50 to $100). No more need to find a parking space to go shopping, just a parking space for the store itself.

Think your pooch has everything? Don’t be so sure.

Innobitz (www.innobitz.com) launched its pet portable mp3 player ‘JooZoo’ in the Korean market, which is designed for pet’s relaxation and safe play stimulation. Adorned with 18k gold and diamond, it features a heart-shaped necklace.

According to the Innobitz, the play system enhances your pet’s physical health and relieves stress through automatic content responding to various pet behaviors. For example, when you leave your pet at home alone or while your pet travels in a vehicle, the JooZoo encourages physical movement or increases blood flow rate by sound wave stimulation.

The luxurious accessory type of remote control and the charger with sound speaker function are also included. Suggested price is between $1,500 and $2,000.

Lately there have been more and more product recalls focusing primarily on items made in China. In the jewelry industry this is especially prevalent in low cost children’s jewelry.

As we have been seeing over the last few years the quality control and safety of many of these items is far below US standards. This seems to be a result of a fast growing nation with severe limits on production costs in an effort to compete on a global market. In the past these issues have not been as obvious, but with tainted dog food, lead jewelry and lead paints on toys,  it makes sense to start looking at alternatives.

Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel at the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, suggests that we avoid inexpensive metal jewelry for kids. If you are looking for inexpensive jewelry for children look at plastic and sterling silver jewelry.