Toxic Children's Jewelry

Economics Blog #3
By: Alisha Tupchong

Toxic Children's Jewelry

Summary of the Event

Health Canada issued an advisory on January 15, 2010, warning consumers that some children’s jewelry products sold in Canada have been found to contain excessively high levels of lead. This warning occurred just two days after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an advisory about cadmium, another toxic metal, which was present in jewelry. Following this event, the Associate Press made an investigation that revealed that China-imported jewelry, made almost completely out of cadmium, was being sold at major North-American chains such as Wal-Mart and Claire’s. Cadmium, more toxic than lead, is a heavy metal that made up at least 10 percent of 12 metal components out of 103 pieces of low-priced children’s jewelry. Even at low levels, lead and cadmium can negatively affect children’s behavior and development.

3 Positive Economic Statements

If studies show that goods made in China are found to contain toxic or harmful materials, then consumers in Canada will be discouraged to purchase them; therefore the demand for Chinese products will decrease, causing a decrease in the supply and imports of Chinese goods to Canada.

If China builds a reputation for producing hazardous products, then countries will decrease the number of imports from them and will look for other countries to import from, which may include Canada, causing demand for Canadian products and manufacturing to increase.

If Canadian products and manufacturing are in high demand, prices will increase for the goods and services due to scarcity, which will cause demand to decrease again so that the prices don’t continually increase beyond the market equilibrium.

2 Normative Statements

Canada should reduce its dependence on China for goods and instead become more self-dependent so that health and safety regulations that are performed on the products are according to Canadian standards.

Canada should test imported products from countries where health and safety regulations have been an issue in the past before being sold at chain retailers and to prevent the recall/banning of substances, which lower the consumer’s confidence in purchasing imported goods.

Opinion About What Should Happen

Canada should reduce its dependence on China for its goods and instead become more self-dependent. When a country relies too heavily on another country, it is not good because if anything were to happen to the supplying country, the receiving country would be affected as well. In Canada’s case, Canada is too dependent on goods from China. With the jewelry incident, Health Canada is being criticized for not banning the products, and merely issuing an advisory. If Canadian companies had to produce the jewelry, it would have to be regulated and checked under Canadian standards, and would not contain cadmium or lead, preventing the outburst of the public. Therefore, Canada should not rely as heavily on products from a single country where regulations are different, in this case China, and instead look to its own manufacturers for production. This benefits the Canadian economy, because the goods purchased and distributed in Canada are produced in Canada, meaning there are no importing fees or foreign exchange fees. In addition, it provides more job opportunities for Canadians, therefore lowering the national unemployment rate.

Citations

"Health Canada issues advisory on metal kids' jewelry." CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 15 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 Jan. 2010. .