Lead Guide

Lead Information

Why bother with a lead rating scale? All lead is bad.

Yes, all lead is bad, but because lead is unfortunately and inevitably part of our lives, products, and homes, a scale can help provide nuance and deeper understanding about how it actually affects you, and how to navigate it. To see what I mean, here are some examples of how certain household products would fall on the scale above:

• X, the “worst case” scenario: an example of this would be having lead in the cooking surface of a pot used for simmering on the stove. Lead will very likely leach into the food from the pot, and you are eating the food, so it will very likely get into your body.

• !, the “caution” scenario: an example of this would be having lead in the knob on the lid of a pot used for cooking. It will not leach into food here. Lead is not well absorbed by your skin, so touching it will also not be an immediate issue. But, there is a chance that if the knob gets scratched or banged up in the cooking process at all, lead dust will leave the knob. And, if you don’t wash your hands after touching the knob, you could potentially transfer some of that lead into the food or directly into your body through hand-to-mouth contact.

• ≈, the “OK/so-so” scenario: an example of this would be the lead used in the bottom of Stanley cups. It’s part of the way they make the vacuum seal, but it is completely covered and encased by stainless steel so you would never come into contact with it, unless you broke open your tumbler and touched or licked it.

The products you have and how you interact with them will determine how they land on the rating scale. Your level of concern may be very different from anyone else’s, too— I’ve heard from people who won’t have a Stanley cup in their home because of the mere presence of lead, and on the other hand, I’ve seen people brush it all off, saying they’ve used products with lead in them their whole life and they’re “totally fine.” All to say, this scale is not a hard and fast rule— none of the ones I make are— it’s just a way to organize your thinking to help compare different products’ potential risk levels in the context of your life and preferences.

Does lead go through skin? Can you get lead poisoning from touching lead?

No, generally lead doesn’t go through skin, and you wouldn’t get lead poisoning this way. The main way lead gets into your body is through ingestion (eating and drinking) or inhalation. Your skin is very good at keeping lead out, and it doesn’t enter your body through dermal contact easily. The exceptions would be if it is in a finely powdered form, if your skin barrier is not intact (as in severe eczema, cuts, or other dermatological conditions), or if the contact time is very long or very frequent.

Showering in water containing lead is generally considered safe, as long as you don’t drink the water. People that work with lead with their hands for their job or hobby don’t need to stop; they just need to make sure no lead gets into the air in vapor or dust form, and to wash their hands afterward so no lead gets into their mouth through hand-to-mouth contact later. Wearing gloves during working is a good idea too, in case there is any lead dust on the product, which could more easily go through skin.

FYI, touching organic lead is very dangerous, and is very easily absorbed through your skin. The word organic in this context means it is attached to hydrogen and carbon atoms— this was the type of lead that was in gasoline until it was phased out in the 1970s and completely banned in 1996. The carbon and hydrogen change how it reacts with your skin, making it readily absorbed. The vast majority of lead we encounter today is in not organic anymore, and is instead elemental, or inorganic.

How to make a decision about a lead-containing item.

Here is how I make decisions about letting lead-containing products into my house, broken down into 4 steps:

1. Is there lead in the product, and if so, where?

   There are a few main ways to know if there is lead in a product. First, a company might disclose it by sharing test results or having a Prop 65 warning. Second, you might personally test for it, like if you use an accurate, EPA-approved, lead test kit and get a positive result. Third, you may know of a very popular blogger that uses XRF testing and reports about the presence of lead in various products. Just as important is knowing where the lead is in the product, so you can answer questions 2-4.

2. Is it migrating out of the product?

   Just because there is lead in a product, doesn’t mean it is migrating out of it, and there are two main ways to know if it is or not. One is by leach testing (read more below) and the other is simply understanding that elemental lead is not very reactive, and will generally mind its own business and stay put unless you coax it out of the product with heat, acid, or abrasion. For example, there is likely lead in the plastic part of the electrical cord of the old space heater I’ve had for 10+ years. But, my concern about this is very low, because there is basically no way for the lead to get out of the cord in the way I use it (it just sits there, undisturbed, 99% of the time.)

3. Is it actually getting into my body?

   If lead is able to migrate out of a product, it may or may not be able to get in to your body. Continuing with the electrical cord example, if I was touching the cord all the time, causing abrasion, and some lead was getting out, I would still not be concerned for myself, as lead is so poorly absorbed through skin and I wash my hands regularly. On the other hand, if I was chewing the cord, or had a baby or pet that was, I would be very concerned.

4. Big Picture questions: does this lead-containing item affect the environment and other people long term? Do I want to support companies that have any lead at all in their products? What will happen to the lead when I’m done with this product?

   You might still think about these Big Picture questions before you purchase anything with lead in it. On the one hand, when the lead in something is such a tiny concern for your personal exposure, as in the case of the space heater, it’s hard to worry about, especially if it’s a good deal and is otherwise healthy. On the other hand, we absolutely can change the market and “vote with our dollars” to encourage less lead being used in any product at all. While your answer will be highly personal and falls outside of the scope of Interior Medicine, I include it here because separating it out shows that it’s just one part of a 4-part decision.

What is XRF testing?

XRF stands for X-Ray Fluorescence, and it is one way to know if there is lead in a product. XRF testing can be done at home with a handheld device — it looks a little bit like a hot glue gun with a screen on it. You can point it at a product, and the type of x-rays that bounce back will tell you what metals are in it. The screen will display a list of how much of each metal it contains. These handheld machines cost up to $50,000 and you must be trained to use it — because it uses x-ray technology, radiation safety knowledge is needed, and since it is a highly technical instrument, understanding accuracy vs precision, calibration, and how to interpret results is important.

Is XRF testing accurate?

Yes, it can be, as long as the machine is calibrated, and the user is trained. XRF machines are also better at detecting heavier metals than lighter ones. Lead is a heavy metal, so XRF testing is very good at detecting lead accurately.

What is leach testing?

Leach testing is done to assess how much lead, or other metal, actually migrates out of a product. It’s a helpful test used in conjunction with XRF testing, to understand whether the lead in a product is bound up in it, and won’t cause harm, or if it’s leaching out, and at what level. For leach testing done on cookware, an acid bath method is used. Typically, 4% acetic acid solution (essentially, extra strong vinegar) is added to the pot, boiled for 2 hours, then cooled and held at room temperature for 24 hours. After that, samples of the liquid are analyzed for how much lead it contains using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (high tech lab equipment). Then, this result is used to back-calculate the equivalent lead content in ppm (or mg/kg) in the pot itself, that is capable of leaching.

Leach tests are designed to greatly overestimate the amount of lead you would possibly be exposed to, to leave lots of room for error and promote less lead exposure. It is very unlikely that you would ever cook food under conditions that are so acidic, or for so long. It gives you essentially a “worst case scenario” result.

Is XRF testing or leach testing more accurate?

While they’re both accurate, leach testing is more accurate for “real life” use.

An XRF test may show that the food surface of a pot has 100ppm lead in it. A leach test may show that same pot has 20ppm lead in it (read more about ppm, ppb, and limits on lead below). Both methods are useful — in XRF testing, the x-rays bounce off the surface and report back to you that it “sees”100ppm lead. It’s good for knowing about the presence of lead, but not necessarily how it will act in real life. Leach testing on the same pot may tell you that over 24 hours, under acidic conditions, the pot has 20ppm that could potentially leach. This is not the same as what is actually in the leachate solution— you can assume that much less of what the leach test shows would get out under normal cooking conditions. Overall, leach testing gives you a more realistic exposure estimate.

XRF testing and leach testing aren’t perfectly correlated. Sometimes, a high XRF reading will have a very low leachate result, and a lower XRF reading will have a relatively high leachate result. You can see what I mean in the testing done on lead-contaminated aluminum cookware here. This is because it’s not just about the mere presence of lead, it’s also about how it is bound up into the materials the pot is made of.

How much lead do you ingest naturally every day?

Lead in food and water is unavoidable, and the amount you ingest depends on what you’re eating and drinking. The goal set by the FDA is for kids to ingest no more than 2.2 micrograms in a day, and 8.8 micrograms daily for adults.

What are the limits on lead in products?

I think this list is really useful for putting lead exposures into perspective. In case you’re not already familiar, PPM means parts per million, and is a way of describing the concentration of something. It’s just like how percent — or, per cent, means per hundred. But in situations like measuring lead, even 0.01% per cent, is way too big. So, ppm is used instead in most cases. Toward the bottom, ppb is used— parts per billion— where even less lead is allowed.

• Soil has 50-400 ppm lead in it naturally, because lead is one of the elements naturally occurring on earth. Human activity can make this number higher. The EPA requires action if lead levels are over 400ppm in soil where kids play, and over 1,200 ppm in other soil.

• 300 ppm is the limit for lead in the metal parts of bicycles.

• 100 ppm is the limit for lead in food packaging and children’s toys.

• 90 ppm is the limit for lead in paint and furniture — defined by the CPSC as objects used to support people or things or may be functional/decorative articles. Such products include beds, bookcases, chairs, chests, tables, dressers, desks, pianos, television consoles, and sofas. They do not regulate appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners, or cabinets, windows, or blinds.

• 10ppm is the limit for lead in eye makeup, and 5ppm is the limit for lead in lipsticks.

• 5ppm is the upcoming law for cookware, and cookware components like knobs on pots, if you live in the state of Washington. Starting on January 1st, 2026, all cookware sold in the state must have 5ppm lead or less in it. This are the first state to limit this.

• 0.226ppm is the limit for lead in flatware, and 0.1ppm is the limit for all other tableware according to Prop 65.

• 20 ppb — parts per billion— even tinier! is the limit for food. Anything above this requires action. This is set by the FDA. Vegetables have lead in them, especially root vegetables.

• 5 ppb — parts per billion— even tinier! is the limit for bottled water. This is set by the FDA.

How do the ppm amounts of lead in products match up with how much I’m actually ingesting?

The estimate will be imperfect, since you don’t actually know how much lead is in the particular carrot you’re eating, even if their max lead level is 20ppb, but here’s a helpful reference: the FDA reduced the amount of allowable lead in apple juice from 20ppb to 10ppb in April 2022. They estimated that this will reduce kids lead exposure by 32%— from 1.57 micrograms a day down to 1.07 micrograms per day.

What is the lead limit for cookware?

In the United States, the limits are a bit confusing to understand and are set by the FDA, Washington State, and California. FYI, there are three different lead measurements to consider— first, the lead content (in ug/mL or ppm) in the cookware vessel itself, the lead content in the leachate solution (scroll up to learn more about leach testing,) and the daily lead exposure a person has.

The FDA says that the amount of lead that leaches from ceramic cookware produced or sold in the United States is limited to a max of 1ppm. That is not the amount of lead in the vessel itself, but in the leachate solution, which is sampled after boiling acetic acid in the vessel and letting it rest, coaxing as much lead as possible out of cookware. This guidance hasn’t always been followed, especially for imports, and a big paper showed that some cookware being sold on Amazon had up to 6,320 ppm.

Washington State will limit the amount of lead in the cookware vessel itself to 5ppm starting in 2026 in their upcoming law for cookware. That means it should leach significantly less than 5ppm into food. In general, cookware vessel’s lead level will be much higher than what can actually be coaxed out into the solution.

California Prop 65 limits for lead are the strictest in the United States. Their rules are based on how a product contributes to a person’s daily exposure to lead, not the concentration of lead in the product itself. Because of this, they don’t have a specific lead limit for cookware, but require cookware companies to prove that the amount of lead a person using the cookware would be exposed to, is 1,000 times below the maximum daily exposure limit for lead. California considers this to be 0.5 micrograms of lead per day, which is much lower than the 2.2 microgram goal set by the FDA for kids (see above.) This is called the Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL.) That means that if a cookware company shows that the lead in their product would cause lead exposure of 0.0005 micrograms or less, then no warning is required.

In the EU, lead limitations for cookware are covered by Directive 84/500/EEC. They limit lead to 1.5ppm (mg/L). This is stricter than Washington State. It may be on par with California, though since it’s a different way of measuring, it is hard to say.

Is there lead in cookware?

Yes, there is lead in two main types of cookware: some imported aluminum pots and pans that have been contaminated with lead, and some ceramic cookware.

Aluminum cookware is not usually contaminated with lead. However, researchers in Washington state found that there were extremely high levels of lead in some of the aluminum pots and pans imported from other countries because they were made with a combination of aluminum and scrap metal that contained lead, in the context of looser regulations. The researchers also found that some of these are for sale on Amazon and other online retailers, so they published a list of ones that are contaminated. The recommendation is to avoid buying cheap aluminum cookware, especially if it doesn’t come with detailed information about where it was made. In general, if you buy aluminum cookware that is made in the USA, where there are strict rules about lead, you will not need to worry about lead contamination.

Read on to learn about the possibility of lead in ceramic cookware.

Is ceramic cookware safe?

Yes, if it has been leach-tested for lead and cadmium and you can see the test results, then you have enough information to decide if it is safe enough for you.

FYI, ceramic cookware is made with clay from the earth, and often has a glaze on it. This is completely different than “ceramic” non-stick cookware, which is metal with a ceramic-like polymer coating on it. If you are wondering about the safety of ceramic non stick, you can read about in my coatings guide here.

Since ceramic and ceramic glaze are made with minerals and clays from soil, it’s often a very safe material. But, some clay sources may have incidental contamination with lead and cadmium, since these metals are naturally part of soil in some areas of the world. Some companies will source their clays specifically from regions that are known to not have these heavy metals in them. And, some companies will leach test their cookware to show that even if these metals are present, they aren’t able to meaningfully migrate from the cookware surface into your food.

Risk is personal — a sliding scale, with lots of grey areas and nuance. You might choose to use cookware that contains a trace amount of lead. As long as you know how much lead is in it, and you’re comfortable with it, that’s the point— informed decision. Theoretically, using ceramic cookware that exposes you to 0.0005 micrograms of lead, knowing 0.5 micrograms is considered the level where there are no reproductive harm risks, may feel OK to you. And, this tiny risk may outweigh the risks present in other types of cookware: non-stick PFAS coatings transfer to food readily and are associated with an ever-growing number of health issues, nickel in stainless steel pots leaches and can aggravate a nickel allergy, imported aluminum pots can be highly contaminated with lead; cast iron can present issues for people with hemochromatosis or even just be annoying to take care of. On the other hand, you may be of the opinion that no amount of lead is OK, and that’s OK too! Again, it’s just about being informed and deciding what feels best for you.

Is lead free ceramic glaze actually lead free?

Usually, yes, but since ceramic glaze is made with minerals from the earth, there is still a chance that a tiny bit of lead is present in it. The FDA explains, “when the pottery is fired at the proper temperature for the proper amount of time, essentially all the lead is bound into the glaze. If any migrates to food, it will be an insignificant amount.” The best way to know is to seek out leach testing results, which ensure that any lead is truly bound up permanently in the glaze, and won’t migrate out into food.

What’s a normal amount of lead to have in your blood?

It depends on when you were born. In the 1960s, when there were very few regulations for lead, the average blood lead level (BLL) was much higher than it is today—it was around 60 ug/mL then, and now the average is 5 ug/mL. You can see it drop over time in this cool graph. While 5 ug/mL is now normal, it’s still not zero, so it’s still not ideal. Unlike with other metals or elements, where a small amount in your blood is safe and there are no known health risks, lead is different— even at just 5 ug/mL, there is evidence of risk.

I’ve been using lead products all my life, and I’m totally fine.

Saying, “meh, a little lead never hurt me” is surprisingly common! While it’s technically incorrect— even very low blood levels of lead are linked with health issues — I do understand why people say it. First, obviously, there is no “control version” of them that wasn’t exposed to lead, so without the alternate universe version of them, you can’t really argue with their statement. I also understand their rejection of living with more fear than necessary — they had all these exposures to lead (see above), and they’re still living happy and relatively healthy lives. Third, almost no one is spending their free time learning about the new research on how blood lead level limits are constantly being pushed lower and lower because we keep learning more and more about how toxic lead is. While I agree with loving the way you are, and reducing fear, I do not agree with the idea that a little bit of lead is safe.

What are symptoms of lead poisoning?

After lead has built up over months to years, signs and symptoms may start appearing. In kids, symptoms of lead poisoning include developmental delays, learning difficulties, irritability, weight loss, and GI issues.

What are the lead toxicity symptoms in adults?

In adults, high levels of lead can contribute to high blood pressure, reduced sperm count, miscarriage, headaches, or difficulty concentrating. These signs and symptoms can also be caused by other things, so always talk to your doctor first.

What can I do for lead toxicity prevention?

Avoid eating soil and dust, by encouraging kids and others to wash their hands frequently. Dust your house with a wet rag weekly. Take your shoes off at the door. Do not disturb old paint until you’ve tested it for lead, and if you do any drilling or renovations that involve lead-based paint as part of an older home, be sure to get expert advice on how to do it safely. Be cautious about pottery, ceramics, toys, and cosmetics that have a Prop 65 warning for lead and see if you can get more information first before using these. Eat a healthy diet rich in vitamin C and iron, which can lessen the amount of lead absorbed. And always, see your doctor if you’re concerned.