Monona Rossol on fri 16 may 97
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 09:14:39 EDT
From: Richard Gralnik
Resent-Subject: Lead in commercial ceramic ware
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> My wife and I stopped at the Mikasa factory outlet store yesterday
......
> Anyway, as we were comparing designs on bone china plates, I noticed a
> little sign on the counter with a yellow triangle. It read something
> like "In compliance with Prop. 65 (the one requiring disclosure of
> hazardous substances in things the public can buy), this symbol indicates
> dishes which use a glaze that contains lead, a substance known to cause
> cancer and birth defects." These were all dishes made in Japan too
> although most people I've asked seem to think only dishes from Mexico have
> lead glazes.<
This is a story you ALL should know. In 1989, FDA proposed to lower the
standard for leaching from 0.5 ppm (in cups) to 0.1 ppm. The Ceramics
Industry in the *United States* screamed its head off and said it was flat
out impossible to get their glazes to comply. FDA backed off.
California went ahead and lowered their standards anyway. Surprise,
surprise, the U.S. manufacturers managed in a couple of years to get their
leach tests below the 0.1 ppm limit and get the little yellow stickers off
their ware. Most foreign china companies, not just those in Japan or
Mexico, have not bothered to do reduce their lead leaching.
So if you have 7 year old U.S. made china, it probably does not meet the
California Standard either.
> And depending on how you read the sign you might think the hazard was only
> to pregnant women. <
They label for the most vulnerable population.
> I'd be curious about the results of running one of those lead testing swabs
> on both the tagged and untagged dishes. <
Most of the lead kits are not very accurate at the 0.5 ppm limit--much less
the 0.1 ppm limit.
Monona Rossol, industrial hygienist
181 Thompson St., # 23
New York, NY 10012-2586 212/777-0062
http://www.caseweb.com/acts/
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