Hazardous Jewelry? Be Wary of Cheap Jewelry!
July 30, 2014 by admin.

It has become more and more acceptable to wear cheap, "costume jewelry" (as is it widely known), and while many pieces of cheap jewelry is made with types of metals and fake gems that look just like the real deal. However, we have to ask ourselves: is it worth our health, and maybe even our children's health, to wear and keep cheap jewelry around the house?

It's not like this is "new" news, as it hit the headlines back in 2012, but, for some reason, it made it all over the news, and then faded away...

Do your little ones play with Mommy's jewelry? If so, then you may want to be aware that the Ecology Center did testing on jewelry purchased from a list of different discount stores or "media outlets" (think Target, Forever 21, Claire's and several others where we purchase our cheap jewelry). You can read more information on the study here. But, essentially, this tested jewelry (which, by the way, rang up at the cashier for less than $10 a piece) revealed high levels of lead, chromium, nickel, cadmium (which has been the main reason for jewelry and toy recalls). A few of these tested pieces of jewelry were made specifically for children!

Well, maybe you are not yet a mom. Then, it should be fine to wear this jewelry, right? Consider this: do you ever absent-mindedly put your necklaces in your mouth? Here's the other thing: some of this jewelry also came up positive for brominated flame retardants, which are normally sprayed onto the outer parts of jewelry. This means that it can either rub off easily onto your precious skin, and you can even inhale it. This chemical is known to be a hormone inhibitor.

So, you may want to take a second look through your cheap jewelry and think twice before you purchase more. It's better to have one or two pieces of safe, custom-made jewelry, rather than hundreds of pieces of potentially hazardous jewelry. Don't you think?

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