3 posts tagged “consumer information”

Environmental Defense Fund

Posted: 01-Dec-1994; Updated: 05-Oct-2007

If you are buying new dishes, there is no reason to run any risk at all. Dishes with lead-free glazes and decorations are being made today by many companies, and many more are moving in that direction. Also, many patterns are so well made that they meet the strict California standards.

Ask Before You Buy

Ask the store manager if the dishes you want are lead-free or have been tested for lead leaching. If the manager doesn't know, have her ask the manufacturer. Ask if the company can guarantee that it meets the California warning standards -- in other words, can it be sold in California without a warning?

This is particularly important if you are buying china you hope to use every day, or over a lifetime. If the china has not been tested for lead leaching by the company, there is no reason for you to take an unknown risk.

Note: you may be told that the china you've asked about is "legal," or "meets federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." This is not the same as meeting California standards. Federal standards are not as strict as California standards, and there's no reason not to take advantage of the most protective standard.

However, if you are considering tableware imported from China (and are not from California), the federal Food and Drug Administration has a helpful new information service. U.S. FDA and the Chinese government are working together to certify Chinese tableware manufacturers whose products meet U.S. federal lead standards. Consumers should look for stickers that show certification under this new program. To see examples of the stickers and learn more about this new labeling program, go to the Food and Drug Administration website.

Retailers and distributors should also look for these stickers on shipping materials to determine which of their products imported from China meet federal standards.

What Can You Be Sure Of?

Glass dishes have no glaze on them. Glass plates, cups, mugs, etc., without painted or decal-type decorations on their surface, are reliably lead-free. (NOTE: This is not true of leaded crystal, which is heavy and expensive and almost never used for ordinary plates, cups and mugs.)

Stoneware dishes -- which are fairly heavy and often have a low shine instead of a bright, full gloss like glazed china -- are normally coated with a material that contains no lead. Unless they have painted or decal-type decorations on the surface, stoneware pieces are almost as lead-free as glass.

Lead-free china -- which looks just like other china but is made with lead-free glazes and pigments -- is sold by some companies. Very low-lead china meets the strict California warning standards. The Shopper's Guide lists many brands and patterns that do so. Some national and regional retail chains now offer only china that meets the California standards for lead.

In many cases you can ask the manufacturers yourself about lead in their china. The companies listed below provided have phone numbers for information about lead levels in specific patterns.

• Annieglass - (888) 761-0050
• Corning - (800) 999-3436
• Dansk - (800) BY-DANSK
• Dudson Group (USA) - (919) 877-0200
• Homer Laughlin - (800) 452-4462
• Lenox - (800) 635-3669
• Mikasa - (866) MIKASA1
• Pfaltzgraff - (800) 999-2811
• Pickard - (847) 395-3800
• Portmeirion - (203) 729-8255
• Royal Doulton - (800) 682-4462
• Spode - (800) 257-7189
• Vietri - (800) 277-5933
• Villeroy & Boch - (800) 223-1762
• Waterford / Wedgwood - (800) 955-1550

11/15/2007

What’s on your child’s Christmas list this year? Many parents say with all the recent recalls of toys due to lead paint, they’ll be extra careful, and that’s exactly what one Utah family is hoping for.

They say their child is sick because of a lead exposure from a most unlikely source and now they’re speaking out so others won’t have to go through what they did.

We’re flooded with recalls about lead products on the market. But do you really know what all these warnings mean?

Jen and Joe McBride had no idea lead was in their home.

It never crossed their minds, even when their 16-month-old daughter Chloe started getting sick.

Jen says, “We noticed in the beginning she was having trouble going to the bathroom.”

She had severe constipation and because of the pain, Chloe became afraid to go to the bathroom.

“She would hold off going to the bathroom for days and she would cry,” says Jen.

Chloe’s pediatrician recommended the usuals: stool softeners and juices but nothing helped.

When she was nine months old, her doctor ordered a routine screening for lead. The results came back with a blood lead reading above normal.

Jacob Varghese, M.D. Chole’s Pediatrician says, “It was 15 when we checked it the first time. Less than 10 is considered normal.”

The family was referred to the local Health Department to see if the source of the lead could be detected.

Frank Carlsen is an environmental health scientist for the Weber-Morgan Health Department which covers the McBride’s city.

He searched the home from top to bottom, using a gun-like device called an XRF which can detect lead, even through layers of paint or brick.

Carlsen says, “We did the standard, wall ceilings, bed, bathrooms, front porch, which had decorative tiles, we checked that. “

He couldn’t find any trace of lead until…

“We zeroed in onto the dinner plates,” says Carlsen.

The gun detected positive traces of lead in the McBride’s dinner plates. It detected a level of 11. Anything above a 1 is considered unacceptable, according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.

After a thorough investigation, the Health Department says the plates were the only detectable source of lead they could find in the home.

Chloe didn’t even eat off the plates; after all she was only 9-months-old at the time. So how could she get lead poisoning from them?

“We asked our doctor and he said because I was breastfeeding and eating off the plates, we were passing it to her through my breast milk,” says Jen.

That’s what her doctor concluded. And he says it’s even possible Jen may have passed lead to Chloe while pregnant.

“It can pass through the placenta. It can go to the baby,” says Dr. Jacob.

The Health Department says things like heat or acidic foods can cause the lead to leach into food, even if the plate is intact.

The McBrides stopped using the dinnerware, and three months later, Chloe’s lead levels were normal. Which again confirms everyone’s suspicions that the plates were the source.

“We were mad,” Jen says, “We were mad. We purchased the plates that hurt our daughter. This was causing her pain.”

And now, even though her levels are normal, Jen and Joe know lead can cause issues that can pop up later in life, such as learning or behavior problems.

Sue Spence, a registered nurse with ‘Lead Safe Kids Program’ says Dr. Jacob, “The right amount to have in your body is zero. But children are particularly at risk because their nervous systems are developing.”

The plates were purchased 3 years ago, and aren’t for sale anymore. But the McBrides say they still want a recall so consumers can be alerted.

“We want the people to know who have them, they could be exposed to lead from eating every day,” says Jen.

Often there are no symptoms of elevated lead levels, so the best way to know if your child has an exposure is to get a blood test through your pediatrician.

By the way, the McBrides say they purchased their HomeTrend dishes through their local Wal-Mart.

Enforcement Would Get Major Boost
By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 7, 2008

The Senate yesterday approved the most far-reaching changes to the nation's product safety system in a generation, responding to recalls of millions of lead-laced toys that rattled consumers last year.

Lawmakers still have to resolve key differences between the Senate bill and a similar measure that passed the House in December. While the Senate version is considered by consumer advocates to be tougher, both contain provisions that would require retailers and manufacturers to be more vigilant about product safety.

The biggest change is likely to be a better-staffed Consumer Product Safety Commission, with more enforcement power. Both bills would boost funding for the agency, which had a budget of $63 million in fiscal 2007 and just less than 400 employees, fewer than half the number it had in 1980. The Senate bill, which passed by a vote of 79 to 13, would increase the budget to $106 million by 2011. The House's version would increase it to $100 million.

Both bills would provide funds to upgrade the CPSC's antiquated testing facilities. Both bills also would raise the maximum amount of money the CPSC can fine companies that fail to report product hazards immediately. Fines are now capped at $1.8 million. The House bill would raise the cap to $10 million; the Senate to $20 million.

The Senate and House measures would also effectively ban lead in all children's products, not just toys, and require toys to be tested by independent labs.

"I'm glad something is going to change. I just hope future families don't have to go through what we had to go through," said Andrew Hartung of Manalapan, N.J., whose 14-month-old daughter, Abigail, was injured last fall in a Bassettbaby crib that was later recalled.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), said, "The vote is a victory for the health and safety of children."

The differences that remain involve which federal safety laws state attorneys general would be able to enforce, whether to grant whistle-blower protection to corporate employees, and which information would be included in a public database of product-safety incidents. The White House and the nation's largest manufacturers oppose giving state attorneys general too much leeway to interpret federal safety regulations, and they oppose whistle-blower protection, which they contend would encourage needless litigation.

The president has not threatened a veto.  [Ed. Note: Quel surprise, mes chers!]

An overhaul of the nation's product-safety system seemed a remote possibility just a year ago.

For the past decade, consumer and environmental groups had been finding lead in children's products. After a boy died in 2006 from swallowing a metal charm made of lead, the CPSC began to examine lead in children's jewelry. But until last year, the CPSC attracted little attention from lawmakers, despite regular testimony by consumer advocates about problems at the agency. Occasional pleas from industry were also futile.

Then, starting last March, a string of recalls involving toothpaste, tires and pet food containing contaminated ingredients from China caused U.S. consumers to question product safety. Public confidence in federal oversight of imports sank further in June when toymaker RC2 recalled Thomas and Friends toys for having lead paint, a toxic substance that most people thought had been banished from toys in the 1970s.

Lawmakers and the toy industry began talking about overhauling the CPSC in September after Mattel recalled more than 20 million products, including Barbie, Elmo and Dora toys, because they were coated in lead or contained small, dangerous magnets.

"It wasn't until some of these recalls began to happen relating to standards that had been in place for many years that we realized the system needed to be strengthened," said Toy Industry Association President Carter Keithley.

After years of sparsely attended congressional hearings, Nancy A. Nord, acting chairman of the CPSC, was greeted by a standing-room-only crowd at her September appearance before a Senate subcommittee. By then, retailers had begun retesting their inventory and recalls of lead-laced toys became almost daily events.

Despite a desire by both consumer groups and manufacturers to get a bill passed by year's end, negotiations over the House and Senate bills dragged on.

In early November, several Australian children fell into comas after ingesting parts of a craft toy. Doctors discovered that a chemical component in the toy metabolized into a substance used as a date-rape drug. The same toy was marketed in the United States and sickened two children.