Health Canada Amends Children’s Jewellery Regulations, SOR/2018-82

Vol. 1025 | 24 May 2018

On May 2, 2018, Health Canada published the amended Children’s Jewellery Regulation SOR/2018-82 in the Canada Gazette, Part II. The amended Children’s Jewellery Regulations under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act [CCPSA] adds a 130 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) total cadmium limit for children’s jewellery items small enough to be swallowed by a child; and replaces the current 600 mg/kg total lead limit and 90 mg/kg migratable lead limit with a single 90 mg/kg total lead limit for all children’s jewellery items. The revised regulation also repealed the existing Children’s Jewellery Regulation, SOR/2016-168.

The revised requirements intend to improve the safety of children’s jewellery as well as align the children’s jewellery total lead content limit with the 90 ppm (mg/kg) total lead limit in effect under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA) for other products posing a similar risk.

Following are the revised requirement under the Children’s Jewellery Regulations, SOR/2018-82:

• Children’s jewellery must not contain more than 90 mg/kg of lead; and
• Children’s jewellery must not contain more than 130 mg/kg of cadmium if the jewellery item is small enough to be totally enclosed in the small parts cylinder when a force of not more than 4.45 N is applied.

The term ‘children’s jewellery’ as defined by Health Canada in the Children’s Jewellery regulations is “jewellery that is manufactured, sized, decorated, packaged, advertised or sold in a manner that appeals primarily to children under 15 years of age but does not include merit badges, medals for achievement or other similar objects normally worn only occasionally.” [emphasis added]. It should be noted that the children’s jewellery definition in the Canadian regulation is slightly different from the definition of children’s jewelry by the ASTM in the standard F2923 as well as the term ‘children’s products’ in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA).

The effective date of revised requirement is November 2, 2018, which is six months after publication of the Regulation in the Canada Gazette, Part II.

The revised Children’s Jewellery Regulation can be viewed at: http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2018/2018-05-02/html/sor-dors82-eng.html

For questions, please contact Dr. Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1-847-212-8273) or Laxmi Ravikumar (laxmi.ravikumar@intertek.com, +1-630-209-9265).