Bling Zinger

Bling Zinger

Did you ever think that your jewelry cou7ld make you sick? Well believe it because 4 year old Colton Burkhart bought a 25 necklace from the gumball machine and became very ill. Colton got sick because he could not resist putting the necklace in his mouth but he accidentally swallowed it. Soon after Colton swallowed the necklace he started having flu like symptoms and severe stomach pains. After X-rays doctors discovered that the necklace was caught in his digestive tract and that Colton’s blood levels for the lead was 12-13 times normal levels. The necklace was removed before Colton was severely harmed but the necklace contained 40% lead. Colton could have died if the doctors did not catch it in time.

The Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission got involved in testing and over 150 million pieces of jewelry have been recalled. Even thought lead in jewelry is so dangerous, manufacturers are selling it because it is inexpensive. Lead is a soft metal and easy to work with and can easily resist corrosion . During the Roman era lead became very common. They used lead in plumbing, roofing materials, and wall linings. Lead compounds even found their way into

foods. Lead acetate is water soluble and has a sweet taste. This was used to sweeten wine and other foods.

Before the 1970s most gasoline contained tetraethyl lead. As gasoline consumption increased so did the so did lead production. The car exhausts released lead directly into the atmosphere so people were being exposed to high levels of lead. Tetraethyl lead is a chemical that directly affects the nervous system.

So when the lead is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed, it gets into the bloodstream.

Chronic exposure can even result in brain damage or death. But the atmospheric lead levels have decreased by 90% over 20 years.

Lead compounds were also used in house paints but are not being made any longer. While the use of lead paint has been banned, many buildings and homes still have lead based paints. Most lead absorption with children is gastrointestinal.

If a small lead based paint chip was swallowed by a child