Lead Poisoning?

My friend, Karen, called this morning to tell me that her husband had gone to the fair grounds to get their plates tested for lead. It was a free service the county was providing because a young child had been diagnosed with lead poisoning, and it was discovered that the source of the lead was the plate she was eating from. Well, I hadn't heard anything about it, but since I was going to go run errands anyway, I decided to take some dishes in. There was a limit of 5 things that could be tested. I stood in line for about 1 1/2 hours, but this is what I found out.

The EPA considers any reading over 600 ppm unacceptable. The "gun" they use to test the items cannot measure the potential for lead leaching from your dinnerware into food, just how much lead is actually there.

The first item tested was a dinner plate that was Mom's. It tested 40. The others were unbelievable. The results are below each picture.

21,400

18,900

57,900

83,500

I was astounded!

I just couldn't believe what they were telling me. These are things we use daily. Dan uses the first one every night for dinner. We use the white one every day for cereal. Except for the one that Dan uses, they are from Pier One. And we bought them in the last couple of years. They were all made in China.

So Dan has an appointment next week to get his blood tested for lead. I have an appointment in 2 weeks for a check-up, and I'll have my blood tested also. Needless to say, we won't be using them again. So if you hear of a free testing clinic anywhere close to where you live, please take your plates or toys in to have them tested. I will let you know the results of the blood tests. It may be that we are just fine, that none of the lead leached out into our food, but that's what we need to find out.

Just as I got to the end of the line, a reporter and cameraman from Channel 4 came to cover the story. They interviewed me, I think, because my plates were so high, and they were relatively new, and from a name brand store--Pier One. They took pictures of the back of the plates with Pier One highly visible. So I may be on the news tonight at 10pm. Wouldn't you know it, I had just washed my hair this morning, and was wearing my scrunchy curly hair-do instead of looking nice for my TV premier! Maybe they won't use me! See, you should never leave the house unless you're looking good enough to go on TV!