No Limits on Toxic Cadmium for Kids: CPSC

"The 12 million 'Shrek' glasses pulled by McDonald's last spring amid federal concerns about cadmium did not have unsafe levels of the toxic metal, judging by revised intake limits regulators unveiled Tuesday.

Staff at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has been scrambling to deal with risks posed by cadmium since high levels were found in some children's jewelry, also said they won't insist on mandatory limits for an element that can damage kidneys and bones. Instead, the agency will defer to an independent, private-sector group that has been drafting voluntary limits for several months.

Tuesday's guidance represents a shift for an agency that reacted aggressively to a January investigation in which The Associated Press revealed that some Chinese jewelry manufacturers were substituting high levels of cadmium for lead, which recent federal law effectively banned.

Agency Chairman Inez Tenenbaum went so far as to advise parents to get rid of all cheap metal trinkets. Within weeks, the CPSC announced its first-ever recall of jewelry due to cadmium, this one involving Disney-branded items sold at Walmarts. Four more recalls followed, implicating nearly 300,000 pieces of jewelry; the agency also leaned on McDonald's to pull the "Shrek" movie-themed drinking glasses."

Justin Pritchard reports for the Associated Press October 19, 2010.