NEWS BULLETIN: October 10, 2007
EXCLUSIVE

Blue Topaz: The Ban That Never Was

By David Federman, Colored Stone Editor-in-Chief

Been in your local jewelry store lately? If you have, you’ll notice irradiated blue topaz is back.

Actually, it never went away.

A ban on reactor-blued topaz that was never certified for commerce by NRC-licensed facilities (which means all such topaz sold for the last decade) turns out to have been a false alarm—never a fait accomplit. But we, like many others in the industry, took the NRC at its word when it warned two prominent retailers in June that it was illegal to sell neutron-irradiated topaz without first having it tested and cleared—here in America according to American health and safety standards. Hey, even the Jewelers Vigilance Committee recommended voluntary suspension of topaz sales.

Then, in late August, we started hearing rumors that the NRC was approving sales of blue topaz by some leading retailers. When we asked the agency if this was so, its press officer David McIntyre sent the following answer: “No one that I know of has ‘requested’ or ‘received’ any ‘clearance’ to sell neutron-irradiated topaz,” he wrote us in an email. Then, he added: “Remember, we never asked anyone to stop selling it.”

Translation: There never was a ban in the first place. Ipso facto, there was never a need to ask for permission to sell it.

“The NRC had a big problem,” says one irradiator. “They hadn’t enforced their own regulations regarding topaz for more than a decade. Creating fear and hysteria was their way to get worrisome topaz off of shelves without having to commence expensive policing actions. In the mean time, they could assure themselves that existing inventories were, by and large, safe. They called the industry’s bluff and it worked.”

Did it?

Judging from the immense amounts of topaz we are seeing on store shelves and TV screens, it looks as if many in the industry who announced cessation of topaz sales were also bluffing.

Has the NRC actually given official permission to sell irradiated blue topaz? Except for talk of “grandfathering” in existing inventories, the agency has been very cagey, refusing repeated requests for yes-or-no clarification by this magazine. This may be intentional. After all, how can you lift a ban you never imposed to begin with? What we know for sure is this:

In August, the NRC conducted four random samplings of New York dealer inventories to prove to itself that blue topaz presented no danger to the public and that enough applications for licenses had been received to demonstrate a “way forward” for the industry. Since the agency has said that its tests indicated widespread topaz safety, and also hinted at a waiver, many retailers have interpreted these statements as an unofficial go-ahead to resume sales of topaz.

Be warned: any so-called resumption is only temporary. Colored Stone has learned that very shortly, perhaps by the end of October, retailers will have to certify remaining topaz stocks—as well as any and all replacement goods, as the NRC grants the first licenses for exempt distribution of topaz. The most likely recipients are Ideal Source and International Isotopes, companies that put in the first applications, but at least three other applications have been filed, by JewelAmerica, HBM Virginia and PAJ (Prime America Jewelry).

From this point on, distributors and importers who sell any gems colored in a nuclear reactor (and soon thereafter in an electron accelerator) will have to have documents for all such stones certifying that they were tested for radioactivity and fell below statutory limits (known as “exempt concentrations”). Retailers may be required to connect their merchandise (in some as yet not fully defined manner) to distribution from a licensed source.

According to current testing standards, an object is radioactive only as long as it registers at or above certain pre-determined concentration levels. Once it falls below those levels, the object is no longer considered radioactive and can be distributed to the public. But as long it doesn’t give radioactivity readings below the minimum set for an item, it must be held in storage abroad or in the U.S. at a licensed facility. Some irradiators complain that American standards are unnecessarily strict, forcing them to extend quarantine times for needlessly long periods and adding significant extra cost to certification.

Nevertheless, whether or not the NRC will raise its limits remains doubtful. But even if the agency agrees to revise them, this would be a time-consuming effort requiring fact-finding studies, input from the consumer, trade and scientific sectors and, lastly, public hearings. So, like them or not, the jewelry industry will have to abide by current radioactivity limits for the next few years.

But let’s not overestimate the new built-in costs of topaz from domestic testing and certification. U.S. treaters tell us they are planning for high-speed, high-volume processing that will keep these price factors as minimal as possible.

“Yes, there will be some adjustment,” says one irradiator who expects to receive a NRC license, “but it will have more to do with time than money. Goods will have to come in loose, be tested and, if found safe for distribution, sent for setting. It will be important to ensure a solid paper trail for all goods so that retailers can prove to regulators that stones meet muster. However, once the industry adjusts to new paperwork requirements and setting procedures, the flow of topaz will return to levels as strong as ever.”

Given the fact that blue topaz jewelry accounts for an estimated $1.5 billion in annual U.S. retail sales, new flood warnings for this gem will be widely welcomed by a trade that just can’t do without this Windex-blue staple stone.

This was also sent out to our Colored Stone E-News mailing list members as an e-mail news blast. Want to receive the latest up-to-date information on the gemstone industry? Sign up for our Colored Stone E-News mailing list here.

Sept/Oct 2007 • Blue Topaz: The Ban That Never Was • Pearl Trade Faces Crisis • Chinese Pearl Farming Imperiled • Blue Topaz: From Hot Rock to Cool Stone This X-Mas • Topaz Troubles • NRC Exclusive Statement to CS on Irradiated Topaz • This Holiday Season May Not a Blue (Topaz) Christmas • The NRC's website