Costume Jewelry Found to Have High Levels of Toxins and Carcinogens, Tests Show

The Ecology Center, a Michigan-based non-profit organization that advocates for a safe and healthy environment, discovered through recently conducted tests that despite strict regulations, many pieces of costume jewelry contain high levels of unsafe chemicals including lead, chromium and nickel.

"None of these things are things you want to have your child exposed to," Dr. Kenneth R. Spaeth,director of the occupational and environmental medicine center at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., who was not involved in the study, told HealthPop. "All of these are harmful. Some of them are known to be carcinogens. Many of these are known to be neurotoxic, meaning they can affect brain development."