PLATES DISHING UP DEADLY DOSES OF LEAD POISONING!

Written by: Cinda Chavich
Reporter for the Calgary Sun (1988) - Retyped sections

Heavy Metal

Don and Fran Wallace are crusading against heavy metal - and their fight has nothing to do with rock music.

The Wallaces are fed up with lead - the Washington couple nearly died of lead poisoning after using handcrafted pottery they purchased in Italy. They say millions of people around the world are killing themselves daily with their dishes. "There's no comprehensive inspection program here or in Canada". "Lead glaze is absolutely, unequivocally unsafe." says Wallace.

In Canada, lead in glazed ceramics is regulated under the Hazardous Products Act. The act puts the onus on the seller to insure that, when tested, pottery does not release lead in excess of seven parts per million.

The standards were set in 1971, after several cases of lead poisoning surfaced. A child died in Montreal after drinking apple juice from an earthenware jug. A California family was poisoned by their Mexican juice pitcher.

Domestic producers and importers have been bound by lead restrictions for 17 years, but picking our offending vessels is still largely hit and miss. It's especially tough when people bring them home as souvenirs.

Joyce Warren, of Consumer and Corporate Affairs in Calgary, says dishes are tested only when they come to her attention. Warren made headlines across the country when she scooped more than 7,500 pieces of lead leaching dish ware from merchants in Calgary's Chinatown. But she can't catch it all. "Sometimes I get tipped off by customs, but I get a lot of my tips from consumers," she says " I hope it's relatively safe out there, but legally it's up to the importer."

Nearly every variety of the Chinese dinnerware Warren tested proved poisonous - from a classic gold and rust pattern to heavily - glazed rose, yellow and turquoise pieces, black floral designs and those with fiery dragon decals. She found excretions of lead between 50 and 2,000 ppm - up to 300 times the allowable level. And although there's little of the offensive pottery on Chinatown shelves today, much of its undoubtedly has already found its way into Calgary homes.

Lead has been used in earthenware glazes since the beginning of civilization. It allows potters to create a broad range of bright colours that are otherwise impossible to achieve. It's cheap, easy to work with and can be fired at low temperatures using simple equipment.

For that reason, much of the pottery produced in Third world countries is suspect. It's the beautiful pieces from China, the colourful designs of Mexico, and hand-painted items from Italy and Spain that are often drafted in home kitchens and fired at temperatures which don't destroy the deadly lead in the glaze.

Because there's no quality control in the manufacture of these goods, Warren says some lots in the same pattern may be safe while others are not.

Anything produced in North America before the lead glazing regulations were passed in 1971 is also risky, she says. And flea market collectibles - like the art deco Fiesta dinnerware or Medalta's orange-red Mantina ware (from Medicine Hat) - have enough uranium oxide in the glaze to set off a Geiger counter.

While Canadian potters are produced are generally well-informed about lead glazes - and fire their work at temperatures high enough to destroy any lead present - Warren urges consumers to ask before they buy.

Wallace says any lead is too much and he's been pushing to have the limits tightened. After a congressional subcommittee hearing last month, the U.S. government agreed to reduce the limits of lead in dinnerware to 0.1 ppm.

Wallace says even glazes marked "lead safe" may break down after repeated use of dishwasher cleaning. "Dishwashers make tiny fissures in the glaze, exposing the paint and making even fine china unsafe," she says. "This is the single most serious health hazard facing our children today."

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It's Difficult To Diagnose

Fran Wallace was literally on her death bed when she discovered she was suffering from lead poisoning.

In horrendous pain, vomiting and confined to a hospital bed, Fran was being treated for an incurable blood disease called porphyria. But her husband Don had many of the same symptoms and decided to investigate their health problems on his own.

He combed medical literature for clues, and found a paper that convinced him they were dying of lead poisoning. The source: their favourite handmade pottery mugs.

Wallace says few doctors actually recognize their symptoms of lead poisoning - and stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, aggressiveness, anxiousness, hyperactivity, muscle pain, weakness, weight loss and learning disabilities. "It's not an easy diagnosis", says Dr. Ingrid Vicas. Director of the Alberta Poison Centre. "It takes a particularly astute person who's thinking about lead poisoning because the symptoms are very vague."

Vicas says lead poisoning is a slow and progressive killer. It's acidic foods - citrus fruits, juices, wine, coffee and tea - that leach the lead from glazes. The lead builds up in the body. Children are at highest risk. "For some reason, children absorb lead much more readily - 50 percent compared with 10 percent for adults," Vicas says.

If you suspect your dishes may be poisonous, you can buy an inexpensive kit to test them at home. Write to Abotex Enterprises Limited, 3031 Wildwood Drive, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N8R 1S7.