BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Urban Legends Lead Crystal Glassware

With all of our laughing at the Romans for poisoning themselves with heavy metals, look at what we drink out of today! Lead Crystal! Lead isn't exactly the SAFEST thing known to be ingesting! And here we pour drinks into a container WITH LEAD to injest it.

According to the Association of Official Analystical Chemists:

Excluding occupational exposure, the general population receives almost 70% of its total exposure to Pb (lead) from food. Other important sources of exposure include drinking water and air; minor sources include tobacco products, decorative glassware, and other types of food utensils.

I guess something can be said for my "Garden Ridge" - 4 for $3 wineglasses!!!!!!!!!!! LOL...SHshhhhhh, don't tell anyone.....

Kitty

Hey, just posting so people wouldn't get too freaked out over their grandma's leaded crystal <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> The risk is extremely low to negligable you will get it from an occasional drink out of leaded crystal... the EPA puts much higher priority on risks of getting lead poisoning from housepaint and leaded paint on ceramics, especially if either was from before the 80's. Lead crystal is not something to totally discount, but the risk is more for liquids stored in containers, such as decanters, for long periods of time. So go ahead and break it out for the holidays, use for special occasions is fine!

Here's a site with some more info:

http://www.guamdiner.com/library/wine/winearticles/ART134.html