MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — AAFES officials have stopped selling three types of teen necklaces after discovering trace elements of a toxic metal in their composition.
Tom Rebman, director of quality assurance for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service headquarters in Dallas, said during a phone interview last week that AAFES asked its suppliers to check their stock following news reports that some jewelry from China contained cadmium.
Rebman said that after the cadmium was discovered, AAFES electronically blocked sales of the necklaces and pulled them from the shelves.
Rebman declined to detail what items were blocked, even though some had been sold. He said there is no current legal requirement to test for cadmium and that AAFES and the supplier were just being extra vigilant.
He also declined to name the supplier.
"I really don’t want to say, because there could be legal complications with that," Rebman said.
Rebman said AAFES had only 80 pieces in stock worldwide and that the necklaces were destroyed.
Kristine Sturkie, a Navy Exchange Service spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that the NEX "doesn’t carry any products that contain cadmium."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has determined that cadmium and cadmium compounds can cause cancer in humans. They can also cause stomach, kidney and bone problems.
Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that independent testing of 103 pieces of low-priced children’s jewelry showed 12 items with at least 10 percent cadmium.
Following the report, retailers Walmart and Claire’s pulled many of the suspect items from their shelves. U.S. politicians began calling for revisions to the law pertaining to the use of substances in children’s products, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission began its own investigation.
