XOS Provides instruments to detect cadmium in children’s products

January 14, 2010 – For Immediate Release – Recently, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) launched an investigation into the presence of cadmium, a highly toxic and carcinogenic metal, in children’s jewelry and other children’s products. While this metal is presently limited by federal law with regard to paint on toys and other consumer products, there is no specific regulation limiting cadmium in the jewelry itself, or other toy bodies, frames, substrates, etc. Several members of Congress have indicated their intent to pursue legislation to establish such limits.

XOS, Inc. recently developed a line of instruments which accurately detect the presence of cadmium, lead, and other toxic elements separately in the surface coating (paint) and in the substrates of toys, jewelry, and other consumer products. The instruments are based on an advanced x-ray technology, known as “HD XRF” which enables accurate detection and quantification of such elements at extremely low levels — and is superior in this regard to the technology used in hand-held and other legacy XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) instruments.

Unlike legacy XRF, HD XRF uses multiple energy beams and highly specialized optics to analyze the paint layer separately from the substrate, while also dramatically reducing the background “noise” that often causes hand-held XRF instruments to fail to accurately detect elements such as lead and cadmium. This next generation XRF technology has been validated and proven effective in independent laboratory studies and is currently in use in federal and state laboratories, and third party test labs.

As the CPSC, Congress, product manufacturers, and retailers tackle the serious issue of cadmium in children’s products, XOS can the provide the instruments to enable all parties to fully understand the extent of the problem through extremely precise measurement of this and other toxic substances in consumer products.

XOS will demonstrate its HD1000 instruments at the American International Toy Fair in New York (February 14-17, booth 5350) and the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPSHO) Annual Meeting and Symposium in Washington DC (February 15-18).

For additional information regarding XOS and its HD XRF instruments, go to www.xos.com/hds, or
contact:

Berry Beumer at t. 518 880 1504 or bbeumer@xos.com.