Associations Set Beryllium Disclosure Standards
By Morgan Beard · Editor-in-Chief

Beryllium-diffused orange sapphire, courtesy Thaigem.com.

Following a closed-door session on February 7 at the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) GemFair in Tucson, Arizona, members of prominent U.S. jewelers associations agreed on disclosure terminology for beryllium-diffused sapphire.

In a press release, the Jewelers of America, American Gem Society, Jewelers Vigilance Committee, and the AGTA said that the treatment should be disclosed as "diffusion (bulk/lattice) treatment." AGTA members are required to disclose the treatment on their invoices, and jewelry associations, particularly JA, are working on educational materials that can be used by retail jewelers to disclose to consumers.

Although the U.S. market appears to be in consensus, the closed-door meeting yielded no firm agreement from Thai or Japanese representatives. Many Thai dealers and some labs are describing the material simply as "heat-treated," while the Japanese laboratories and jewelry associations have not yet committed themselves one way or another. Although it is said that little of the material has made it to the European market, labs there are identifying it simply as "treated."

"The message was, this is how the message will be imparted to the U.S. market," said Jeff Bilgore of Oscar Heyman Brothers, outgoing head of the AGTA laboratory committee. That message was to be carried back to Thailand, Japan, and other countries through industry representatives, who then were left with the decision of how to disclose it themselves.

As a way of dealing with the lack of international agreement, the joint release recommended that "buyers of corundum should consider establishing written vendor agreements stipulating a requirement for such disclosure and further requiring the right of return of material subject to this treatment not disclosed at the time of sale."

As yet unaddressed is the issue of what sellers should do when unsure of whether or not the gem has been treated. Currently, the only way to detect beryllium diffusion in stones where the color goes all the way through the gem — as with most of the orange and yellow sapphires — is to use expensive high-tech analytical techniques. Some companies have elected not to carry the material; others have halted sales of all yellow and orange sapphire, and still others are doing spot testing of the material. And many companies at the shows were selling the material with disclosure.

"The only way you can handle things you don't know is to know you don't know it," commented AGTA Executive Director Douglas Hucker. He pointed out that laboratories internationally are working on better, cheaper ways of detecting the beryllium-diffused material, and eventually those tests would come. Until then, he urged sellers at all levels of the trade to disclose as fully as possible.

"People are producing this material, and we perceive it as a viable product — as long as it's disclosed," he concluded.

For a full report on beryllium-diffused sapphire in the marketplace, see the March/April 2003 issue of Colored Stone.

Posted: February 14, 2003

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