ANYONE PINING for old-fashioned corporate greed and irresponsibility, take heart! Here come the Retailers Association of Massachusetts and the Fashion Jewelry Trade Association pushing back against the state for banning high levels of lead in children's jewelry ("http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/05/09/state_lead_limit_for_jewelry_decried/">State lead limit for jewelry decried: Trade groups call proposed rules impossibly strict," Business, May 9).
We hear all the time about toys that have been recalled because they are defective in a way that poses a risk to children. Yet here are two trade associations boldly and unapologetically defending their right to market and manufacture products that are harmful to children if accidentally swallowed.
This is not some hypothetical risk - these regulations were approved after a series of child deaths and illnesses across the country. Yet according to Jon Hurst, president of the retailers association, "We feel this regulation puts us at a disadvantage, and it comes at just a horrible economic time."
I guess the real question we should be asking is, how do all the little children sleep at night, knowing that they may soon be responsible for a serious shortage of cheap lead jewelry?
ERIN ROWLAND, Cambridge
