From: i000702@disc.dla.mil (sam frajerman)
Newsgroups: rec.food.drink
Subject: Re: Lead Crystal Decanters: Valid Health Concern?
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:15:34 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Defense Industrial Supply Center, Philadelphia, Pa               

In article <192ojkINN9cq@agate.berkeley.edu>, markh@sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu (Mark Hurwitz) writes:
> 
> 	I would like to purchase a nice crystal decanter for
> occasional use as a wine carafe.  No long-term (more than a few
> hours) storage of liquor in it is envisioned.  I am not pregnant,
> lactating, nor is it likely I will take on either of these
> conditions in the foreseeable future.  Should I worry about lead
> leaching into the wine, and try to find a no-lead / low-lead decanter,
> or is lead pretty much a non-issue for this application?





Hi,
     This is the "Wisdom of the Net" as found in my files:
LEAD LEACHING FROM CRYSTAL
Lead crystal, containing 24 to 32 percent lead oxide, is revered for its \
brilliance and clarity.  But preliminary experiments by two New York City 
researchers now indicate that extremely high levels of lead, a toxic heavy 
metal, can migrate from crystal decanters into the beverages they hold.  
The team's findings suggest that "long-term storage of ANYTHING in lead 
crystal is really to be avoided," says Joseph H. Graziano, who led the 
study.  Graziano, a toxicologist at Columbia University's College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, recalls that when internist Conrad Blum first 
questioned him about lead migration from glass, he thought Blum was 
"crazy."  But Blum's home tests, showing the apparent leaching of 
lead from crystal into wine, piqued his curiosity.  The two Columbia 
researchers describe their subsequent investigation in the Jan. 19 
LANCET.  Blum supplied three lead-crystal decanters from home.  He 
and Graziano cleansed each decanter and poured in port.  Two days 
later, they began periodic samplings of the wine.  "When we 
analyzed the first sample, I couldn't believe it," Graziano 
says.  Lead showed a steady increase, from an initial level 
of 89 micrograms of lead per liter to between 2,160 and 
5,330 ug/l four months later.  White wine doubled its 
lead concentrations within an hour of being poured into one 
lead-crystal glass, and tripled within four hours, they found.  
Alcoholic beverages in 14 lead-crystal decanters brought in by 
colleagues showed similar spikes.  Two brandies stored in lead 
crystal for more than five years accumulated 19,900 to 21,500 
ug/l lead, the researchers found.  (EPA's lead standard for 
drinking water is 50 ug/l, and there have been discussions of 
lowering it to 20 ug/l.)  Because a single glass of the contaminated 
brandy "contains as much lead as you would ordinarily become exposed 
to in a month from all other sources" -- including air, water, diet 
and dust -- Graziano contends that consuming such drinks would be 
"stupid."  And in a letter submitted Jan. 8 to the JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS, 
Graziano, Blum and Columbia colleague Vesna Slavkovic report that apple 
juice and infant formula leach lead from crystal as effectively as alcohol 
does.  In juice samples that sat in lead-crystal baby bottles for four 
hours, lead levels spiked from an initial 1 ug/l to 166 ug/l.  Warm 
formula attained comparable levels in 15 minutes and reached 280 ug/l 
in four hours.  Because infants are more sensitive to lead's effects 
than adults, the authors suggest "that the sale of these [crystal baby 
bottles] be forbidden," and have sent the new data to the FDA.  
According to a statement issued last week by the Lead Industries 
Association (LIA), the alcohol study suggests "there is negligible 
risk" from beverages placed in lead-crystal barware "for short periods 
of time, such as during a meal."  LIA and another industry group, the 
International Lead Zinc Research Organization, plan a study of the risks 
posed by long-term storage of alcohol in lead-crystal decanters.  FDA is 
already conducting a similar investigation.  -J. Raloff Article reprinted 
(without permission) from Science News, Vol. 139, Jan 26, 1991, page 54.

   Restrict use of crystal to occasions. Don't drink your daily glass of 
wine from a crystal goblet.  Don't store fluids in crystal for long 
periods. The less radical people describe a week or two as long; the 
more radical types say overnight is too long.
Women of childbearing age should avoid crystal ware.  Children should 
not be fed from crystal ware.  These are straight quotes from the article, 
with minor paraphrasing, not an expression of my opinions. I am merely 
passing them along.  Not all crystal appears to spew lead, but much does. 
Some leaches almost none.
There are as yet no FDA standards in effect for crystalware, but there are 
standards for ceramicware.  The federal standards for how much lead is 
allowed to be leached from ceramics are now extraordinarily permissive 
(that's my editorial opinion), and are about to be made drastically more 
conservative. They are likely to be reduced to about 4% of the levels now 
allowed, and much ceramic ware now legal will cease to be so.  A fellow 
called Burke, who runs FDA's Office of Physical Science, says that
crystal can be tested using the Frandon Lead Alert kit available from 
Frandon Enterprises, PO Box 300321, Seattle, WA 98103, 800-359-9000, 
for $29.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. That was mentioned in 
the Times article. This is a lot cheaper than the places I know about, 
which charge about three times that.

i000702@disc.dla.mil
Sam Frajerman 
(W) 215-697-4220
   Autovon 442-4220
"OLDER NOW AND STILL RUNNING AGAINST THE WIND."
Newsgroups: rec.food.drink