Dollar Tree must test its children’s products more thoroughly after a federal investigation found bracelets and pencil cases with illegal levels of lead and cadmium at the company’s Washington stores, the attorney general’s office said Thursday.

To avoid a lawsuit, Greenbrier International, which does business as Dollar Tree, entered into a nationwide, legally binding agreement with the state of Washington in King County Superior Court that requires the large discount retail chain to ensure that its laboratories outside the United States use independently verified testing methods.

The company will also pay $190,000 to Washington to cover legal fees and for “future enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act and environmental protection efforts.” The Consumer Protection Act is designed to protect Washington residents from unfair or deceptive business practices.

Tests by the Washington Department of Ecology found that children’s bracelets and pencil cases sold at Dollar Tree stores in 2018, 2019 and 2021 at times contained more than four times the federal limit for lead and four times the state limit for cadmium.

Dollar Tree cooperated with the investigation and removed the products from its stores, the attorney general’s office said.

The company provided documents from laboratories outside the United States showing that the concentration of toxic metals was within acceptable limits, but an independent review of the tests found that the tests contained errors or missing information, government officials said.

Lead can cause neurological problems in children and cadmium is a carcinogenic metal that can lead to kidney disease and brittle bones. There is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Both metals can cause death in extreme cases or with high levels of exposure.

The agreement requires Greenbrier to implement certain reforms over the next five years, including using X-ray fluorescence technology to test samples of imported children’s products, rotating annual testing of children’s products by various third-party laboratories, and requiring laboratories to provide written procedures for lead and cadmium testing.

Greenbrier must also hire an independent expert and a laboratory in the United States to audit its overseas testing against federal environmental and consumer protection standards.

In a statement to the Standard, Dollar Tree said the company is “committed to selling quality products.”

“We have an advanced product testing program and will continue to improve product testing processes for our suppliers and their products with the help of third-party testing laboratories,” a company spokesperson said.