Preface

Survey and health assessment of chemical substances in jewelleries

This project ”Survey and health assessment of chemical substances in jewelleries” is carried out by FORCE Technology for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. The completed analyses are carried out by FORCE Technology, the Department for Chemical Analysis.

The purpose of the project was to map the Danish market for jewelleries and based on this, to select a number of jewelleries for screening for content of heavy metal as well as analysis for release of heavy metals. Furthermore, the purpose was to analyse a number of textile necklaces for content of benzidine, which is banned in the EU.

The project was completed over a period of eight months (April to November) in 2007.

A number of offences have been found in the project. All offences have been reported to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

The report has been written with the purpose of presenting the results of the health assessment of lead in an international context.