Charles Margulis, The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re ''Bid to Root Out Lead Trinkets Falters in U.S.'' (front page, Aug. 6):

Scott
Wolfson, a spokesman for the consumer safety commission, simply is not
credible when he said, ''We want to get to a point of not having to do
recall after recall, and simply make the marketplace safe,'' about
lead-contaminated children's jewelry.

In fact, over two years
ago Consumer Product Safety Commission published an ''Interim
Enforcement Policy for Children's Metal Jewelry Containing Lead'' that
failed to comprehensively address the problem of lead poisoning from
children's jewelry. As our organization noted at that time, the
agency's flawed policy established no new legal requirements for
content and testing of lead in children's jewelry.

The Consumer
Product Safety Commission policy re-emphasizes the agency's
case-by-case approach, which relies solely on the threat of post-market
recalls for enforcement. By contrast, our California lawsuit against
nearly 100 companies set the first legal standard in the nation for
testing and marketing of lead-safe children's jewelry.

By
neglecting to create and enforce such standards, the Consumer Product
Safety Commission has ensured that children will remain at risk from
lead poisoning from jewelry.

Charles Margulis
Communications Director
Center for Environmental Health
Oakland, Calif., Aug. 6, 2007