Summary: Minnesota enacted Chapter 60 – H.F. No 2310 into law on August 1, 2023, which restricts the import, manufacture sale, or distribution of products containing lead or cadmium that exceed the limits for any art material currently made by the art materials industry. While the ban includes a host of other products, this essay focuses on art materials. Keywords: Cadmium Lead Minnesota Art Materials
It was only a matter of time before the quiet murmurings of people concerned about cadmium catapulted into drafting legislation that created a ban on cadmium and lead.
Looking back on press releases by the Consumer Products Safety Commission over several years, several of them involved finding cadmium and or lead in children’s jewelry, especially necklaces. Given a young child’s propensity for taking a necklace and putting it into their mouth and pulling it around and around like dental floss had to be disconcerting for everyone if lead or cadmium was discovered in the product’s manufacturing process.
The root of the problem lies in holding manufacturers of many goods to standards that exist for making products directed toward children. A regulation accomplishes the goal of not subjecting children to come in contact with hazardous products, but the issue should have been addressed by holding manufacturers accountable before the import or distribution of products that must not contain lead or cadmium if they wish to sell them in the US marketplace.
It appears that jewelry for children comes from a source that values low prices and dubious quality of materials over safety. Indications are that inexpensive children’s jewelry has been made with questionable metal mixtures contaminated with lead and cadmium.
Unfortunately, art materials were swept up into the same legislation as cheaply made children’s products. While Minnesota law targets goods used mainly by children, the intent is to prohibit lead or cadmium from being used in a broad range of consumer goods for children has a significant impact on the sale of art materials containing these substances.
While all of us would agree that it would be terrible to let children use lead or cadmium paint given their less-than-fastidious hygiene or understanding of the dangers of exposure, the ban prohibits responsible adults from using lead or cadmium paints in Minnesota.
I avoid using lead paint products for the most part. I find waste disposal and potential contamination of my environment to not be worth the effort of employing lead in my artwork, I do not feel the same about cadmium.
I run across several posts in art forums that treat cadmium as though it is radioactive. The mere presence of cadmium in their studio will cause panic as though cadmium paint squeezed onto a palette will somehow seep into their system and poison them.
Be it cadmium or burnt sienna, I do not engage in any behavior that would allow paint to infiltrate my body. I treat ALL art materials, paints, and mediums as though they were hazardous and avoid situations where I could ingest, inhale, or have significant skin contact.
But here we are. I am sure that a Minnesotan attempting to purchase a lead or cadmium paint from an Internet supplier will be subject to a notification like, “This product may not be purchased in the State of Minnesota,” and the shopping cart will prohibit adding it.
In hindsight, it is no wonder why a few manufacturers were savvy to the pending Minnesota legislation and introduced Cadmium Hue colors to their line of paints. So, the good people of Minnesota can still have paint that mimics the qualities of cadmium colors. We are fortunate to have so many choices available to us.
We will visit the subject of cadmium and lead again in the future.
Syntax of Color
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