1 Preface and purpose

Survey and health assessment of chemical substances in jewelleries

Jewelleries are found in a countless number of variants, including a large number of metal jewelleries with and without a content of precious metal. These jewelleries can potentially contain and release problematic substances such as for instance heavy metals.

A number of studies from abroad have proved a problem with the content of large amounts of lead in cheap imported jewelleries. The seriousness of this problem is confirmed by a recent death of a 4-year-old boy who by accident had swallowed a heart-shaped piece of jewellery containing more than 99% of lead. The incident led to a voluntary recall of 300,000 pieces of the mentioned piece of jewellery (Berg et al., 2006).

Furthermore, it has turned out that the textile part in a necklace imported from Turkey contained the substance benzidine, which is banned in the EU.

Thus, this project has the purpose to:

Give an overview whether there are metal jewelleries on the Danish market with a problematic content of heavy metals.

Clarify which types of heavy metals which in this case are present in problematic amounts in metal jewelleries in Denmark.
Clarify whether there is a relation between price (quality), country of origin, jewellery part, jewellery type and category as well as content/release of heavy metal.
Assess possible health consequences by using jewelleries containing heavy metals in problematic amounts.
Give an indication whether there are textile necklaces on the Danish market containing benzidine.