WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Athletic shoe maker Reebok International will pay a record $1 million (500 million pounds) civil penalty to settle allegations that it imported and distributed charm bracelets that contained toxic levels of lead, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday.
The agency said in March 2006, a 4-year-old boy fromMinneapolis swallowed the bracelet's heart-shaped pendant anddied.
According to a March 2006 report by local newspaper StarTribune, the lead level in the blood of Jarnell Brown, 4, wasthree times higher than what health officials consider to bedangerous.
Brown's death sparked a nationwide recall of some 300,000bracelets, which were given away with the purchase of variousstyles of children's Reebok footwear, the newspaper said.
The penalty is the largest for a Federal HazardousSubstances Act violation, the CPSC said, and follows thebracelet recall.
"This civil penalty sends a clear message that the CPSCwill not allow companies to put children's safety at risk,"CPSC acting Chairman Nancy Nord said in a statement."Preventing dangerous metal jewelry from reaching the hands ofchildren is a priority for our agency."
Reebok, a unit of Germany's Adidas, in agreeing to settlethe matter, denied that it violated federal law, the commissionsaid.
(Reporting by Kristina Cooke and Karey Wutkowski, editingby Maureen Bavdek)
