The small parts cylinder
Updated
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The ban
Any toy or other article intended for use by children under 3 years of age which presents a choking, aspiration or ingestion hazard because of small parts as determined by part 1501, and which was introduced into interstate commerce after 1 January 1980, is a banned article.
The test, quoted
Place the article, without compressing it, into the cylinder. If the article fits entirely within the cylinder, in any orientation, it fails to comply with the test procedure. Test any detached components of the article the same way.
And then use and abuse
An article that does not fit entirely within the cylinder is then subjected to the use and abuse tests of 16 CFR 1500.51 and 1500.52, excluding the bite tests, and any component or piece that has become detached is tested in the cylinder in turn. A bracelet that passes whole does not pass if its clasp comes off and fits.
Which is the real exposure for jewelry
The individual findings obviously fit. The question that decides a finished children’s piece is whether it stays assembled through use and abuse, which turns on crimp quality, jump ring closure and glue, not on the size of the bead.
When introduction into interstate commerce happens
The regulation defines it. An article manufactured outside the United States is introduced when it is first brought within a US port of entry. An article manufactured in the United States is introduced at its first interstate sale, or at its first intrastate sale if components or raw materials were received interstate, whichever is earlier.
Balls have their own definition
If anything in the pack is a spherical, ovoid or ellipsoidal object meant to be thrown, hit, kicked, rolled, dropped or bounced, a separate and larger template applies: a small ball passes, under its own weight and in any orientation, entirely through a 1.75 inch circular hole in a rigid template a quarter inch thick. That is not a bead, but a tethered ball on a cord is explicitly included in the definition.