Blog Action Day: Get the Lead Out!

Today is Blog Action Day where bloggers are uniting to post about the environment. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. What better place to start than in the home?

Do you use grandma's old dishware during the holidays? Or are you like me and have a vintage set (mine are from the '50s) that you use every day? Or maybe you have handpainted pottery imported from Mexico, China, Italy, Spain, India, Korea, Macao, Pakistan, or Thailand. Even new dishware from China is suspect. You may want to test them all for lead.

Seems that anything produced in North America before the lead glazing regulations were passed in 1971 is risky. It's acidic foods - citrus fruits, juices, wine, coffee and tea - that leach the lead from glazes. (Stop storing wine in that lead crystal decanter, too!)

Since few doctors recognize symptoms of lead poisoning - stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, aggressiveness, anxiousness, hyperactivity, muscle pain, weakness, weight loss and learning disabilities - no one realizes that their dishware may be making them sick. And since lead builds up in the body, children are at the highest risk.

So what can you do?

Buy a Premium Lead Test Kit from the LEAD INSPECTOR™ by clicking here. I will be buying one to test our dishware as well as our vintage glassware and cocktail shakers.

LEAD INSPECTOR™ is the only patented lead test kit on the market that employs three different methods for accurate testing: Rapid Test Procedure, Special Test Procedure, and Testing for Lead in Water.

The Rapid Test Procedure allows you to quickly test children's toys, dry painted surfaces/paint chips, toy cars, baby bibs, children's lunch boxes, pottery/ceramic ware, mini-blinds, plumbing/lead pipe/solder, electronic assemblies, bath tub glazes, furniture, food can seams, antiques, ceramic tile and other surfaces for lead.

So join me on Blog Action Day and get the lead out of your home! You may finally have an excuse to get a new set of dishes, too. (And yes, I heard there's lead in lipstick, too.)

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Comments

[Fred]

Check out this US Carbon Footprint Map, an interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States to Cities. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State & City energy consumptions, demographics and much more down to your local US City level...

http://www.eredux.com/states/

[Chris Abraham]

In addition to getting the lead out, I think it is also important to reduce emissions and carbon dioxide as well!

Sign the petition to help increase car fuel efficiency and increase an evolution towards sustainable energy like solar and wind.

Congress is about to pass a bill with the best fuel economy standards ever (35 mpg by 2020) and a renewable electricity standard (15% by 2020) that guarantees the growth of renewable, clean energy.

I am working with a coalition to make sure Congress sends the president a strong energy bill with meaningful changes for our environment and planet. This legislation would be a monumental step toward stopping global warming.

www.energybill2007.org

[Steve]

Being a product of the 60's we all grew up in an environment that knew very little of this topic. The suffering from all of this is widely known but today our children should be well informed unlike the past. Nice site....