Reebok recalls bracelets after boy dies

Sneaker-maker Reebok International Ltd. said yesterday it is recalling about 300,000 charm bracelets after one was linked to the lead-poisoning death of a 4-year-old in Minnesota.

The bracelets, which have heart-shaped charms with Reebok's name on them, were offered as gifts with the purchase of some children's footwear for nearly two years, said Canton-based Reebok.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, a child died last month from lead-induced brain swelling after swallowing a piece of the bracelet.

''Laboratory analysis of the charm from the child indicated it contained 99 percent lead," the department said in a statement; the safety threshold for lead content in jewelry is 0.06 percent.

''Reebok is cooperating fully with appropriate regulators, and working hard to fully understand what happened, how it happened, why it happened -- and most importantly -- how we can immediately take steps to prevent it from happening again," said Paul Harrington, chief executive of the Reebok brand, in a statement. ''I want to assure all of our consumers and our retailers that I will do everything in my power to ensure that no other family, no other child, suffers a similar tragedy."

A television station in the Minneapolis and St. Paul market, 5 Eyewitness News, reported on an evening telecast yesterday that the victim's name was Jarnell Brown and that he died in late February, several days after he became ill with mysterious stomach pains.

''He was hollering and screaming all the time," the boy's mother, Juanna Graham of Minneapolis, told the station. ''We just didn't know what was causing it."

An attempt to reach Graham was unsuccessful. A woman who answered a call to Graham's address said that Graham did not want to come to the phone.

The bracelets were made for Reebok by ''a third-party, independent vendor in China," Reebok spokeswoman Denise Kaigler said.

Asked how the bracelet's lead content could be so high, she responded: ''The questions you're asking are the same questions Paul Harrington is asking, and that is why he is personally leading this investigation. We simply do not have all of the details of what happened and how it happened, and getting those details is a top priority."

Reebok was acquired several weeks ago for about $3.7 billion by Adidas-Salomon AG.

Reebok learned of the death from Minnesota officials late Friday, March 10, Kaigler said. Reebok immediately took steps to begin contacting retailers and asking them to pull the footwear from store shelves. The following Monday, Reebok contacted the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Yesterday the commission disclosed a recall and urged consumers who come across the bracelets to immediately take them away from children and dispose of the entire bracelet.

''The recall was done with urgency," said commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese. ''Reebok wanted to do this as quickly as possible."

Last year, the commission made 400 recalls; in a majority of those cases, there were no reports of serious injuries. She did not have a number for fatalities.

How vulnerable Reebok is to lawsuits and monetary damages may turn on the determination of what role the piece of jewelry played in the boy's death.

''Causation is the central question in every products liability case," said Gabrielle Wolohojian, a WilmerHale partner who co-chairs the law firm's products liability and consumer products litigation group.

Reebok has not had any contact with the family of the dead child.

''We have tried to reach out to the family, but we have been unable to confirm the family's identity," Kaigler said. ''We have been told by Minnesota authorities that because of privacy reasons, the name of the family right now cannot be released to Reebok."

In separate action, the safety commission disclosed a voluntary recall by the retail chain Dollar Tree Stores of 580,000 pieces of toy jewelry; the necklaces and ring sets are a potential lead-poisoning hazard for children.

No incidents or injuries have been reported, the commission said.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.