Don't wear silver jewelry randomly, the water inside is a bit deep

In our daily life, we can see a lot of silver ornaments, whether it is the necklaces, earrings, and rings of the ladies who love beauty, the bracelets that the elderly love to wear, or the longevity locks, bracelets and anklets for babies, many of them are silver ornaments.

In addition to being beautiful, these silver ornaments often have beautiful meanings, such as safety, wealth, health, etc. But have you ever thought that these silver ornaments with beautiful meanings may actually harm your health? !

The picture comes from the Internet

Some time ago, we bought several pieces of silver jewelry for babies online and offline and sent them for testing, but the results were unexpected.

▲ Actual photos of 7 silver jewelry samples

01 Fake silver jewelry is rampant

The brands, channels and prices we purchased are as follows:

We have selected models that sell well in different channels. Models 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 are all from the same brand (a big brand), models 5 and 6 are from other small brands, and models 7 are from different stores. It can be seen that the prices of the same brand purchased from different channels vary greatly.

So is there any difference in quality between the same brand purchased from different channels? Are the cheaper ones good ones?

We tested these silver jewelry using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometry method used in the standard GB/T 18043-2013 for the determination of jewelry and precious metal content.

The test results are as follows:

It can be seen that 4 out of 7 products are fake silver jewelry, and the fake rate is as high as 57.14%!

02 Fake silver jewelry has many harmful effects

Some parents may want to ask, if I buy fake silver jewelry, besides being cheated of money, will it also harm my body?

I believe everyone has seen cases of "silver allergy" on the Internet or around them. That is, after wearing silver jewelry, the skin in contact with the silver jewelry will become red, swollen, itchy, rash, or even ulcerated.

The picture comes from the Internet

But in fact, there are very few people who are truly allergic to silver. Many people experience "silver allergy" because they wear silver jewelry that contains other heavy metals, such as nickel, lead, and cadmium.

Nickel is a heavy metal element that can easily cause skin contact allergies. Medically proven, long-term contact with nickel-containing items can cause skin allergies and even cancer.

Lead is clearly classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Long-term accumulation in the body may directly or indirectly induce intellectual decline, anemia, and muscle weakness in children. Therefore, buying fake silver jewelry will not only lose money, but it is also likely to cause harm to our bodies!

In order to detect whether the fake silver jewelry we purchased contained heavy metals that are harmful to the human body, we conducted two nickel release tests on one of the fake silver jewelry - Sample No. 1.

The second test showed that the nickel release of sample No. 1 exceeded the standard by more than 27 times!

It exceeds the standard by so many times! If the baby wears it directly, the consequences will be unimaginable!

03 Are real silver jewelry harmless?

With this question in mind, we tested the lead and cadmium content of samples No. 5 and No. 6, which were found to be genuine, using the jewelry standard (corresponding to 2# and 3# in the figure, respectively). The test results are as follows:

Although the test results were all qualified, the lead content of sample No. 5 was close to the critical value of the standard.

If we follow the requirements of the US CPSIA (the lead content in children's products must not exceed 100 mg/kg), the lead content of sample No. 5 is definitely above the standard.

In addition, the qualified sample No. 6 also has some flaws. Its label is marked with the so-called "10,000-fine silver", that is, the silver content is 999.9‰, but there is no such marking method in the standard, and the silver content is at most 999‰ (1000-fine silver).

After a round of testing, we have to say that we are very shocked. Logically, the quality of products for babies should be better, but we didn't expect that the products we tested even had basic safety concerns. If the quality of products for babies is so bad, what about silver jewelry for adults?

04 Where does inferior silver jewelry come from?

Why are there so many low-quality silver jewellery? We found several reports.

According to Southeast Net, in order to save costs, some small workshops and informal manufacturers will recycle some relatively cheap silver, but these raw materials often contain harmful elements such as chromium, nickel, zinc, and lead.

According to Dazhong.com-Peninsula Metropolis Daily, some small silver jewelry workshops, in order to save money, actually extract silver from hospital X-ray films, film developing solutions, electroplating plant wastewater, and sludge in electroplating tanks.

If the silver jewelry you wear is processed in such a small workshop, it is not surprising that various problems arise after wearing it.

05 How to distinguish genuine and fake silver jewelry

So, if you need to buy silver jewelry, we recommend:

References: Lü Xiang, Zhou Suzhen, Yan Ji. Detection of nickel release in metal eyeglass frames and assessment of its hazard to human body[J]. China Eyewear Science and Technology Magazine, 2015(1):146.