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Lead in Christmas LightsSubmitted by onetahiti on November 16, 2007 - 7:00am.
Once again, as for many years, our home is dark for the holidays. No colorful lights adorn our abode to express our bounteous holiday spirit. Why? Are we modern-day Scrooges, trying to say "Humbug" to our neighbors? Or is there another reason? Here is our problem: for many years we haven't been able to buy Christmas lights. Each year we have tried to buy Christmas lights--we love lights--but each year our quest has been thwarted. Why? For a long time, literally all of the lights to be found, locally or online, have been leaded and poisonous. Poison is not our idea of the holiday spirit. Over the years I have repeatedly contacted the management at Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and other chains to tell them of the lead light situation and to ask that they stock non-lead lights, but have been told each year that all lights are now from China and indeed are coated in lead. :( If it were not for California's progressive labeling laws we might never have known. If you have purchased lights in the last 10 years or so, make sure to only handle them with gloves and be very careful not to let children touch the cords or coated parts of the bulbs. The parts that one would think would be plastic are now lead. Or... maybe it will be different this year? Please, if someone finds Christmas lights that are made in the US or are clearly labeled as not having lead instead of the opposite, please let me know? Our house has been mostly dark at the holidays for a very long time and a dislike for lead is why. -- OneTahiti
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"Splain to me, please..."
Lead in lights? How and where. I have some several year old lights, and I guarantee you that having handled lead metal myself, the wires are plastic, not lead. That is to say - on the outside. The inside? Stranded coper wire. Where's the lead?
RB
The lights we have seen for years now have all been labeled with fine print warning of care in handling because of toxicity from lead, a labeling supposedly required by California law. Did you find some that were not so labeled? :)
-- OneTahiti
On the box? On the wire? What does tha CA labeling say? Sometimes CA is way ahead of the rest of the nation in such things, other times CA is, shall I say, out in the ozone with some of their laws, etc.
I've done some research (not finished) on transdermal lead absorption. There is no question that it can happen. I haven't seen good answers yet as to whether or not clinically significant amounts of lead are absorbed transdermally, or of what level of exposure/handling might be required for such to occur. What I'm questioning is kind of like some of the stuff in recent years that has been published about different things (e.g. peanut butter) causing cancer. If they had to give 3 times the rat's body weight over a short period of time to make a rat sick, it has little clinical significance in reality. That kind of thing...
I'll look at 'em when I get 'em out soon and see if I can find any labeling about lead.
RB
Thanks, RB! :)
-- OneTahiti
Found one recent medical article abstracted in PubMed (the standard place for searching for medical information [as opposed to pop or pseudo-medicine] searches used by medical professionals):
Am J Ther. 2005 Jan-Feb;12(1):17-21.
Cutaneous resorption of lead after external use of lead-containing ointments in volunteers with healthy skin.
Gorter RW, Butorac M, Cobian EP.
International Institute for Oncological and Immunological Research, Hohenstaufenring 30-32, 50674 Cologne, Germany. robert.gorter@gmx.de
Lead-containing ointments are frequently used in anthroposophic medicine. In a prospective, open-label phase 1 study, 33 volunteers at the Ambulatory Clinic for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the Free University of Berlin, aged 18-65 years, were exposed to 100 g Plumbum metallicum 0.4% ointment (Weleda, Germany) over a 4-week period. The lead-containing ointment was regularly applied to the cubital side of the forearm. Regular measurements of lead concentrations in whole blood, urine, and scalp hair were determined. None of the 33 volunteers showed an increase in lead concentrations in the 3 investigated compartments after 4 and 8 weeks. Blood lead levels (average value) decreased significantly from baseline to the first week (P < 0.05). Average values in the following investigations (weeks 3, 4, and 8) were significantly lower than at baseline (P < 0.05). There was no increase in lead levels in the scalp hair after 8 weeks (P < 0.05). The results show that the commonly prescribed lead-containing ointment Plumbum metallicum 0.4% in humans with an intact skin does not present a toxic risk.
PMID: 15662288 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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I don't know the % or dose found in the lights OneT is concerned about, so can't say yet whether this article is relevant to those issues. May or may not be. Will try to find out more, but this seems like a pretty significant exposure of the skin to lead metal. Will keep y'all posted.
RB
I found this:
"Dermal (skin) absorption
The ability of the skin to absorb certain organic lead compounds, such as tetraethyl lead found in petrol has been recognized since the 1940s. Recent laboratory research suggests inorganic lead compounds (e.g. lead nitrate, lead acetate and lead oxide) can be absorbed through the skin but in very small quantities. As a blood lead test is the most common detection method, additional research is needed on lead testing methods. Skin absorption may also pose a threat to workers in the construction trades and paint industry that are less likely to wear protective clothing to prevent lead dust from adhering to their skin."
Located here: Link...
RB
Sci Total Environ. 1988 Oct 15;76(2-3):267-78.
The use of sweat to monitor lead absorption through the skin.
Lilley SG, Florence TM, Stauber JL.
CSIRO Division of Fuel Technology, NSW, Australia.
It is usually assumed that lead can be absorbed through the skin only if it is present as an organolead compound such as tetraethyllead or lead naphthanate. It has been found, however, that finely-powdered lead metal or lead nitrate solution placed on the skin results in rapid absorption of lead, and transport of the metal around the body. The absorbed lead appears in sweat and saliva, but not in blood or urine. The application of 6 mg of lead as 0.5 M lead nitrate to the left arm resulted in an increase in lead concentration in pilocarpine-induced iontophoresis sweat samples taken from the right arm, from an initial value of 15-25 micrograms Pbl-1 to greater than 300 micrograms Pbl-1 after 2 days. Saliva lead increased from 2.5 to 15 micrograms Pbl-1 in the same period. The rate of lead absorption through the skin increases with increased sweating of the skin. Since no measurable increase in blood lead has been found, the lead must be transported in the plasma and rapidly concentrated into the extracellular fluid pool (sweat and saliva), without significant uptake by the erythrocytes, and with a very low transient concentration in the plasma. Workers occupationally exposed to lead have extremely high levels of lead in sweat even though their lead in blood is only moderately elevated. Lead absorbed through the skin may be eliminated via sweat and other extracellular fluids, and hence not be as great a health hazard as ingested lead, but this will need to be proved by further studies.
PMID: 3238426 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Dermal absorption of inorganic lead compounds is generally quite low [4, 7]. One study reported increased levels in saliva and sweat following dermal exposure to inorganic lead, although blood or urine levels remained unchanged. It was postulated that the inorganic lead absorbed through the skin was transported in plasma and rapidly concentrated in sweat and saliva, without significant uptake by erythrocyes [2].
Found at: Link...
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The chemical make up of the substance. Inorganic chemicals and substances are not easily absorbed through intact, healthy skin (such as cadmium, lead, mercury, and chromium. Organic chemicals dissolved in water do not easily penetrate the skin because the skin is impermeable to water. However, organic solvents, such as paint thinner or gasoline, are easily absorbed through the epidermis.
found at Link...
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More to follow...
RB
Thanks, RB! I had figured the main risk was in children putting their hands in their mouths after handling lead, or even in licking the lights or cords during installation, or in ingesting any broken-off bits of plastic etc..
-- OneTahiti
But here's what I've found so far:
1) inorganic lead salts or compounds, like PbO, CAN be absorbed through the skin. It is not absorbed very much. I haven't found how much it takes to be toxic yet.
2) In SOME - not all - wiring for this kind of lights (and other things) the PVC insulation has various kinds of stabilizers added to it to decrease degradation due to heat or weather, but especially heat. Over time, SOME of the lead MAY leach to the surface of the wire. These are literally microscopic amounts - nothing that can be seen with your eye.
THAT is the issue with so-called "lead in Christmas tree lights." What that phrase doesn't tell you is that such can be the case in ANY electric wire insulated by PVC, which happens to be the most common insulator for household-type electrical wiring. Some companies are moving away from using lead as a stabilizer in PVC, but it's still common and is WAY not limited to China.
What all that STILL doesn't tell us/me is this: Just how much lead is available on wires as small as those used for Christmas trees? Is that a toxic amount when exposure is once a year to put up and take down a tree? What IS a toxic dose of lead, and can that size dose readily be absorbed through rare casual contact with the wire? Given that the salts are on the surface of the wire as very, very small particles, to what extent does moving or rattling around the lights and the bundled wires in their boxes dislodge it from the insulation of the wire so that it is not likely to be placed on the skin?
Many sites will tell you that there is no acceptable dose of lead. That's one way to put it. However, it is also a fact that the environment provides each of us with a baseline lead load, mainly in the bones if the exposure is long enough. Quick exposure, such as may occur with dermal absorption, will show up in the blood.
While it is possible, at this time I highly question the likelihood of clinically significant doses of lead getting into the system from this casual and rare (once a year) exposure.
So - IF one won't get a toxic dose from HANDLING the wires, and one keeps the dang things out of one's mouth, there may be no practical or real danger from this. But I'm still workin...
I'll letcha know as I find out more.
RB
The Christmas decoration -- that's right, it is a singular decoration -- cannot wait on your research and will have to go up, lead or not. Luckily, it does not require much more wire-touching than your average reading lamp.
But before it goes up, I am going to celebrate Thanksgiving.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Spend some time with family if possible, wander and wonder a little outside, think of all we have, eat some turkey, and enjoy.
Since it is established that there can be FAR, FAR less exposure to the lead that MAY be there by touching it than by licking all the lead off the entire length of the wires (just who does that, anyway??), I say GO FOR IT!
RB
PS - you do well, my friend. It's Thanksgiving FIRST. It AIN'T Christmas!
I've been taking the long-term view. Lead, once in the environment, tends to stay there. And many folks do say there is no safe level.
If I knowingly bought leaded lights, I would worry about little bits leaching off into the soil at first during use and later during disposal, and building up over decades and centuries and millenia. I would worry about kids now and in the future seeing brightly colored wires and plastic and not having good handwashing practices or eating little bits. Now life is way too short for me to want to do all that worrying, so I avoid it by not buying the lead-labeled lights.
It seems sort of silly anyway to buy an imported, potentially dangerous luxury product when I don't have to. If I'm going to buy "an imported, potentially dangerous luxury product" it will be more like a computer than some lights. At least my computers haven't been labeled by California as covered with lead--yet. :)
Thanks again for all your help. And if you do find some "Made in USA," non-lead-labeled lights, please let me know? :)
-- OneTahiti
Decorating the Christmas Tree is a good experience for family and friends ... and it can be so beautiful when it is done
A winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures. Reasons included less agricultural work needing to be done during the winter, as well as people expecting longer days and shorter nights after the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
Interesting topic.... I always thought they were talking about the "lights" themselves being the source of lead paint. I'm referring to the bigger bulbs (the old fashioned kind) that are dipped in paint to produce different colors..
Vendor is often a generic term, used for suppliers of industries from retail sales to manufacturers to city organizations.
And this definition of vendor is relevant to this old discussion HOW?