‘Lucky charm’ bracelets contain toxic chemicals

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MANILA, Philippines — The EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental watchdog monitoring toxic products, warned the public on Monday against cancer-causing chemicals in some bracelets made of red string, beads, and metal charms that were being sold to supposedly attract good luck this new year.

In a statement, EcoWaste said that it detected cadmium in five “lucky charm” bracelets bought in Quiapo, Manila, after subjecting these to chemical screening.

Using a handheld X-ray fluorescence analyzer, it found the chemical element classified as a heavy metal in the amount of more than 100,000 parts per million in the bracelets that cost P50 to P100 each.

According to EcoWaste, the trinkets were “mostly unlabeled and adorned with metallic dragon charms as 2024 is the Wood Dragon Year, according to Chinese astrology.”

The group added that none of the bracelets it examined had a cadmium content warning informing the wearer that the product contained an ingredient described by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as “carcinogenic to humans.”

“Transparency in the chemicals that make up a product, as well as the hazards they pose to health and the environment, should be made mandatory in line with the consumers’ right to know,” EcoWaste said.

The World Health Organization has identified cadmium as one of the 10 chemicals or chemical groups of major public health concern. It is also included in the Philippine “Priority Chemicals List,” a list of existing and new chemicals that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Environmental Management Bureau had classified as potentially posing “unreasonable risk to public health, workplace, and the environment.”

Cadmium in products like jewelry, however, is not covered by the 2021 Chemical Control Order (CCO) for the ingredient and its compounds. CCOs are intended to prohibit, limit, or regulate the use, manufacture, import, transport, processing, storage, possession, and wholesale of priority chemicals.

In its Administrative Order No. 2021-008, the DENR said that “any cadmium in products and materials not considered as [a] chemical substance or mixture such as but not limited to batteries, toys, electronic equipment, jewelries, [and] ceramics” are not covered by the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990.