Report: Children's products may contain hazardous metals

Rain coats, hair barrettes and jewelry seem harmless. But Consumer Reports magazine says a series of tests uncovered "worrisome levels" of potentially hazardous metals in such children's products currently on store shelves. In its October 2010 issue, which hits newsstands Tuesday, the magazine says a metal-and-rhinestone hair barrette, a clover-shaped cell phone charm and a vinyl children's rain coat contained heavy metals. Cadmium and lead levels are the focus of the magazine's report, which is based on tests of more than 30 products using an initial screening method called X-ray fluorescence and outside laboratory analysis. While lead has drawn attention from product safety advocates for years, cadmium -- a metal commonly found in paint and batteries -- has become a larger concern recently. And the magazine argues that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission needs to develop regulations to limit its use. "We're concerned it's going to start showing up a lot in other products, such as children's jewelry, or hair barrettes or other products," said Don Mays, Consumer Reports' senior director of product safety and technical policy. "The problem here is that young children in particular have a tendency to put jewelry in their mouth, a necklace, a little pendant, they have a tendency to suck on it."