Monona Rossol on sun 15 nov 98
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 15:38:25 EST
From: Donn Buchfinck
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: Lead test results....
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> A lot of commercial industrial potteries still use lead in their glazes
> Duncans Diamond clear is a lead glaze, and is rated food safe
> I even think lenox china is lead and lead crystal is still sold
> lead is out there the English potters still use it <
Of course they use it. And they test each kiln load and that test
information is available for governmental agency (FDA in the US) inspection.
And even major china makers like Lenox didn't meet the California lead
release standard when it was first instituted in about 1991. Now Lenox and
all rest do meet this standard.
All I'm saying is that if you use lead----test your glazes. You especially
need to do this with glazes *claiming* to be "food safe" if all the
conditions they list on the label are met. These label qualifications take
Duncan off the hook for liability if your glazes hurt someone and put you
firmly on the hook.
If you use lead, test frequently, keep records, and provide your customers
with the same protection that commercial producers do. Should our customers
be more at risk than those who buy Lenox?
SNIP
> my question is if it is so bad for us why is it still legal to use lead in
> food safe glazes from companies like duncan <
Because the laws in this country are just plain dumb. They wait until after
the injury and then we sue.
To use an analogy: The asbestos companies NEVER broke any laws. There was
no OSHA when they were busy exposing workers. When OSHA came into being,
they met all the regulations. That didn't stop people from filing so many
lawsuits that the asbestos companies had to declare bankruptcy. The
asbestos companies lost these suits because they only looked at "what did
they know and when did they know it."
So the laws don't stop you from leaching metals into people's food. Nor do
they prevent Duncan from selling glazes that will leach lead. You have no
liability until after you hurt somebody. Everyone knows that people
shouldn't have toxic metals added to their food. So you are liable if you
hurt a customer.
Remember: Duncan, Mayco, and Amaco did not break laws by selling their
product. Yet they settled significant amounts of money on allegedly
brain-damaged kids in two lawsuits in 1997.
> but the comercial glazes are using a frit, that is the lead has already
> been fired and locked with silica. <
Locked, Shmocked. You've been reading the wrong books.
The solubility of lead frits was one of the major issues in the two 1997
lawsuits. Fritting does not render the lead unavailable to the potter who
inhales or ingests the dust. In fact there is data from both animals and a
human ingestion to show that they are as available as raw lead. I now have
published sections from Dr. Stopford's deposition (the toxicologist for ACMI
which doles out the AP and CP seals) which clearly backs what I have said for
20 years: There is no correlation between frit solubility and bioavailablity.
And the insolubility of a lead frit is absolutely unrelated to its solubility
in the final glaze. Once it is fired, it is a totally melded into a new
entity and it takes TESTING to find out if it is safe.
Monona Rossol
ACTS
181 Thompson St., # 23
New York NY 10012-2586 212/777-0062
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