Cadmium in Children's Jewelry Hazard

Author: Health Canada
Published: 19 Oct 2010 - Updated: 28 Oct 2026

Table of Contents:
Synopsis - Overview - Related Content

Synopsis

Government of Canada calls on industry to voluntarily stop the use of cadmium in childrens jewelry.

Overview

The Government of Canada has taken action to protect the health and safety of children by appealing to members of industry to voluntarily stop production, importation and sale of children's jewelry made with the intentional use of cadmium or cadmium-containing materials.

"The health and safety of Canadian children continues to be a top priority for our Government" said the Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health.

"I strongly urge industry to act in the interest of the well-being of children and to stop using this toxic heavy metal in children's jewelry."

Testing by Health Canada has found cadmium may be increasingly substituted for lead in inexpensive jewelry.

While there is no known risk to health from simply wearing jewelry made with high levels of cadmium, Health Canada's risk assessment has concluded that there is foreseeable potential for sucking, chewing or swallowing of such jewelry which may lead to serious health effects from cadmium exposure.

Health Canada will continue to closely monitor compliance with this request for voluntary action. If no improvement is found, then mandatory requirements may be introduced via the federal regulatory process.

In June 2010, the Government introduced Bill C-36, the proposed Canada Consumer Safety Act.

If passed into law, the Act would modernize the government's approach to consumer product safety and include new measures, such as the ability for Health Canada to order mandatory product recalls of unreasonably hazardous consumer products and the mandatory reporting of incidents or deaths for all consumer products in Canada.

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally issued as a press release by Health Canada and published on 19 Oct 2010. Last updated on 28 Oct 2026. This content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.