02/25/10 - The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) has established a landmark settlement with Lerner NY (New York & Co), H&M, Tri-Coastal Designs, and Haddad Accessories, creating the first legally binding rules to end high levels of lead in purses. The agreement, CEH v. Lulu, comes after CEH found alarming levels of lead in a significant number of handbags at major retailers including Target, Macy's, Walmart, Kohl's and others last April.

Last year a federal law went into effect requiring that materials used in children's products contain no more than 300ppm of lead, but no federal stipulations have been made for purses and handbags. The recent agreements made with CEH will require that purses and handbags sold in California will contain no more than 300ppm of lead, and will be even stricter concerning some specific materials. H&M has agreed that by March 1, 2010 purses sold by the company will contain no more than 90ppm of lead in paint, surface coatings, vinyl or leather materials. The company will eventually phase down the lead content even more by September 1, 2010.

The companies involved in the agreement have agreed to paying $35,000 each in settlement payments. [Sources: CEH.org and ABCNews.com]