As I said in an earlier thread, there has been a strong movement to exempt certain inherently lead-free materials from the provisions of the new Law. On January 15, 2009, the Consumer Products Safety Commission published a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register that listed a number of natural materials that fall into the "inherently lead-free category and would be relieved from the testing provisions of the Act". Included in the listing are the following that must be used "untreated and unadulterated with respect to the addition of materials or chemicals, including pigments, dyes, coatings, finishes or any other substance, and that do not undergo any processing that could result in the addition of lead into the product or materials": 1. Presious gemstones: Diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald; 2. Certain semiprecious gemstones (list follows); 3. Natural or cultured pearls; 4.
Wood; 5. Natural fibers such as cotton, silk, wool, hemp, flax, linen; 6. Other natural materials including coral, amber, feathers, fur, untreated leather.
Interested parties are invited to comment -- details are found in the Notice and on the
CPSC website page devoted to information about this new Act. I recommend that if you are interested in up-to-date information, go to this website rather than relying on blogs put up by various groups on the web who may have a specific interest, or on magazine articles that may be a month or more behind due to publishing delays.
