I highlighted the “Friends of Mel” bracelet a couple of months ago. I purchased my bracelet as a reminder of the day that I donated peripheral blood stem cells at Dana Farber. I am a match for a 21 year old woman with leukemia. We’re still awaiting news on her prognosis. I’ll post an update when I find out if the stem cells “took”.

I went onto the “Friends of Mel” website to purchase another bracelet as a birthday gift for my aunt and was very sad to see this.

“To our dismay, we learned recently that parts of our jewelry contain levels of lead that are high enough to warrant this communication….When we learned that there may be lead in the bracelets, we took the proactive step of hiring an independent lab and sending random samples for testing. These tests confirmed that, though the beads contain no lead, the small rings have a high lead content. The Foundation had a written assurance from a foreign supplier that the bracelets did not contain lead.”

There’s also an article about it in the Boston Globe today.

That is horrible. I really hope that the Foundation doesn’t encounter financial problems. It truly is a great cause and it sounds like they tried to do their homework upfront. I’m not sure yet what they are going to do to “exchange” bracelets with something lead-free. It sounds as if they’re not sure right now either. I, for one, am not going to demand my money back. I hope others are as understanding.

First the toy industry and now this…is anyone going to be held accountable?  Personally, I see this as (yet another) reason for us to “buy American”…sure, you might be able to get a cheaper price on products from China, but the US does a decent job at regulating quality of products and working conditions.

The toy industry is doing a decent job posting recalls...anybody have a list of other products that are recalled??  Please leave a comment. 

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