Chinese gold tone jewelry found toxic: tester A market management officer shows the Chinese-made gold tone jewelry seized from shops in Ho Chi Minh City on February 28, 2014. Tuoi Tre Samples of three types of Chinese-made gold tone necklaces seized from three jewelry stores in Ho Chi Minh City last month have been found to contain toxic chemicals that can have negative health effects on consumers, the city’s Market Management Agency announced Friday. The inexpensive jewelry, coated with gold and silver color but actually contain no real precious metal, contain excessive amounts of lead (Pb) and cadimi (Cd), the market watchdog said, citing results from the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3 (Quatest 3). The necklaces are among nearly 12,000 jewelry products market management officers confiscated from three silver shops on District 5’s An Binh Street following a sudden raid on February 18. These Chinese products are all illicitly brought into the country without any papers and receipts, officers said. Lead and cadimi are used in making gold tone jewelry to keep the products shiny and prevent them from rusting, according to experts. But long contact between these chemicals with wearers’ skins will cause allergy, poisoning or inflammation, they warned. The three jewelry shops had to pay fines and have all of the seized products destroyed. However, these stores remain normally operational and were packed with customers as a Tuoi Tre reporter witnessed on Friday. Fake jewelry are available at these facilities for VND20,000 to VND60,000 an item. But all of them have inadequate and dubious information about the origins and manufacturers. Besides these three stores, An Binh Street is also home to a number of other similar shops, selling a wide variety of Chinese-made gold tone jewelry at no higher than VND100,000 an item. The products are also available for wholesalers at An Dong and Binh Tay markets. From there, the inexpensive products will be distributed into small markets and shops in HCMC and other localities countrywide. They enjoy good sales because they are fashionable, cheap, and look almost identical to real gold and silver jewelry, a small vendor at Ba Chieu market revealed. Tuoitrenews