Lead Warnings

[Briar Lee]

About twenty years ago when my kids were all little I went out and bought each one an identical Zebco 33 fishing pole and when my youngest opened his, there was a label that read something like this:

Warning

This product contains lead, which the State of California has determined causes cancer, etc.

My youngest seemed quite disappointed, but I told him his pole must be better than the others and whatever he did, don’t eat his fishing pole in the State of California.


In the year 2024 with do gooders thick everywhere, lawyers on television suing for everything, the Stanley Company still uses a lead plug to seal their vacuum mugs:

Stanley Cup Lead Lawsuit: Is There A Lead Poisoning Risk?

A Seattle-based law firm is suing Stanley in a potential class-action suit, alleging that the company delayed in publicly confirming that it uses lead in its manufacturing process.

www.today.com

Can an engineer tell me why in the world would a company today use lead for anything?

I’m not afraid of lead, but the world is.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I'm sure most know it's common for lead to be a component part of brass used in all sorts of things, so yes it's used and used a lot ---- and safe.

Most ammunition (as you know!) contains lead so companies churn it out by the tons every day. I never took the expression "eating lead" literally, but clearly it wasn't a good idea, haha.

Those are the widespread uses that come to mind.

Does seem odd to have it in any kind of a thermos kind of mug even if it is safe for all practical purposes - I didn't read the article, maybe it's a cheap way to keep the weight towards the bottom or something, then again, looks like a whole bunch of nothing in terms of the faux outrage.

 

[fireground_piper]

I imagine there's specific properties in lead that's beneficial to the final sealing of the insulation layer and is presented as the industry standard for insulated cups (not just related to Stanley).

Last I was aware, most marking paint on the roadways, signs, and other exterior steel structures across the country are all still painted with lead paint due to the leads ability for durability and corrosive resistance.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Other companies making similar mugs do not use lead. Lead poisoning is really terrible. Once its in your body, you are at the mercy of the poisons, slowly going crazy while your body dies. Typesetters used to have a very short life span, because of the lead type they used.

I'm not an engineer, but if other companies can make mugs without lead, I think it would be possible for them to also. They must just be using the cheapest Chinese company to squeeze the most profits out of the product.

 

[captpat]

I have several Stanley cups and after reading the article I'm not worried.

Another widespread use of lead in our daily lives occurs in vehicle batteries, no one is running around claiming we're all going to die or suffer some horrible malady because we use a car battery.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I rarely put ammo or car batteries in the dishwasher with my dishes. Just a touch of lead oxide on the things I eat off of would be dangerous.

 

[rick3wood]

Zebco 33 ..now that was a great fishing reel. I have used Stanley thermos for years and dont see any reason to worry

 

[Zero]

When I was a kid I used to chew on lead sinkers when I'd go fishing, I think I turned out ok I'm more concerned with the parasitic infection that I may have from owning cats all my life
Common cat-borne parasite is positively associated with frailty in older adults

Common cat-borne parasite is positively associated with frailty in older adults

A common, cat-borne parasite already associated with risk-taking behavior and mental illness in humans may also contribute to exhaustion, loss of muscle mass, and other signs of "frailty" in older adults, suggests a study published Nov. 6 in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biomedical...

medicalxpress.com

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

I have several Stanley cups and after reading the article I'm not worried.

Another widespread use of lead in our daily lives occurs in vehicle batteries, no one is running around claiming we're all going to die or suffer some horrible malady because we use a car battery.

Last time I checked the kids in my neighborhood weren’t licking lead based batteries lol

As for those Stanley cups I wouldn’t be too concerned unless there’s damage to the shell that would expose the lead. Also, I’d question how long the outer shell lasts in case the cup is tossed. Wouldn’t want that stuff leaking into the ground even if it winds up in a landfill.

 

[Briar Lee]

I imagine there's specific properties in lead that's beneficial to the final sealing of the insulation layer and is presented as the industry standard for insulated cups (not just related to Stanley).

Last I was aware, most marking paint on the roadways, signs, and other exterior steel structures across the country are all still painted with lead paint due to the leads ability for durability and corrosive resistance.

The vacuum bottle has been around for maybe a century and the gadgets used to have a replaceable glass liner.

What has to happen is a machine punches out a steel bottle and sucks out the air and a melted lead plug seals it.

Can’t they use something that won’t make headlines?

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

Further thoughts on this would be:

1. As Briar Lee pointed out, are there other materials that can be used besides lead?
2. Lead is a sketchy substance to use in general but why are we not having a bigger conversation around microplastics in our bodies? I recall seeing an article about how our systems are showing up with this garbage in us which gives me the heeby jeebies thinking about it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

and the gadgets used to have a replaceable glass liner.

Replaceable? I never knew that. I remember several times as a kid, I would open my thermos full of mom's soup to find thin deadly glass shards. I never knew you could replace the liners.

 

[canucklehead]

It is the normal method of sealing stainless steel vacuum liners, and it is used by most companies, not just Stanley. Yeti mugs are the same.

 

[woodsroad]

About twenty years ago when my kids were all little I went out and bought each one an identical Zebco 33 fishing pole and when my youngest opened his, there was a label that read something like this:

Warning

This product contains lead, which the State of California has determined causes cancer, etc.

My youngest seemed quite disappointed, but I told him his pole must be better than the others and whatever he did, don’t eat his fishing pole in the State of California.


In the year 2024 with do gooders thick everywhere, lawyers on television suing for everything, the Stanley Company still uses a lead plug to seal their vacuum mugs:

Stanley Cup Lead Lawsuit: Is There A Lead Poisoning Risk?

A Seattle-based law firm is suing Stanley in a potential class-action suit, alleging that the company delayed in publicly confirming that it uses lead in its manufacturing process.

www.today.com

Can an engineer tell me why in the world would a company today use lead for anything?

I’m not afraid of lead, but the world is.

Because lead bullets kill deader than plastic bullets.

Seriously, though, does that lead plug have food contact? No. So why worry about it. I mean, look at Bobby Clark. He drank from one of those Stanley cups and seems to have survived OK.

 

[Briar Lee]

Replaceable? I never knew that. I remember several times as a kid, I would open my thermos full of mom's soup to find thin deadly glass shards. I never knew you could replace the liners.

On some wide mouth ones, the hardware stores kept replacement innards.

The stainless steel bottles are the last fifty years.

By the way Stanley no longer does a forever lifetime warranty. One I got new in 1977 lost its seal in 2009 and they replaced it. A few years later they changed and said the lifetime of the bottle, estimated at five years.

Dirty, razamataz, no account, low life, chiseling sunnybeaches.

But these aren’t the traditional Thermos bottles. These are the Thermos brand mugs every gas station has sold something similar for thirty years.

The other brands don’t have do gooders sharpening swords to go after them.

Why not?

 

[Kent Hartland]

If I may, can we not go culture war here? For instance, I myself have done good a few times in my life so I must be a do-gooder. Something tells me you other fellows are also closet do-gooders that really just don't want to be told what to do.

Do-gooders have done much good over time, things we all enjoy and appreciate and that have saved many lives and injuries. Seat belts and airbags, for example have clearly saved millions of lives. Cigarettes were a terrible and sustained crime against humanity that killed generations of Americans just from second-hand exposure. Aren't we glad to have gotten a grip on that little problem?

Lead is used in various types of metal, not just brass. Stainless steel usually contains some amounts, based on the variant, including the popular 304 stainless. It makes metals more machinable, easier to polish and less prone to chipping when drilling and cutting. In all likelihood, it will continue to be used for this, as yet, irreplaceable, quality. Thing is, we are exposed to many products with relatively safe levels of lead, but in total, the cumulative exposure may be not-so-safe, so we need to know, to make up our own minds.

I wasn't thrilled when do-gooders got my favorite Teflon lubricant taken off the market but after reading why, I agreed. Like all the other microplastics polluting our bodies, brains and the Marianas Trench, we do need to get control of these deadly substances.

So where do the do-gooders become intruders and nannies? I don't know but I, for one, appreciate someone raising issues that I want the option to think about and to decide for myself. If someone sets off a tornado siren and gives me the option to take cover, I will always appreciate the heads-up.

I yield my soap box. You may flame me now. Just tamp me in with a really good cake or pudding.

; ^ )

 

[telescopes]

I met George McGovern once. He told the story how people referred to him as a bleeding heart liberal. He said, “When I see a child who is going hungry or a man who has worked hard all his life unable to get health care to treat his sick and dying body, my heart bleeds for them. I make no apologies for this.”

The actual passage from his book that he was referring to says

"During my years in Congress and for the four decades since, I've been labeled a 'bleeding-heart liberal.' It was not meant as a compliment, but I gladly accept it. My heart does sometimes bleed for those who are hurting in my own country and abroad.

"A bleeding-heart liberal, by definition, is someone who shows enormous sympathy towards others, especially the least fortunate." he continues. "Well, we ought to be stirred, even to tears, by society's ills. And sympathy is the first step toward action. Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction 'Love the neighbor as thyself.'"

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's lead oxides that are the most dangerous, and being covered by something doesn't prevent the foamy lead oxides from forming. If put in a dish washer with your other dishes, the lead oxides, which are easily dissolved into the water, are then sprayed all over your other dishes. So yes, I wouldn't want one of the things.
I don't see how that makes someone liberal. Ignoring a danger is not conservative, but stupid (or ignorant). But, now that you know, if you do it, then it becomes stupid.

I just don't understand in the least how this is liberal.

 

[telescopes]

In the words of Bob Dylan, “Everybody must get stoned.”

Many issues often referred to as liberal issues are just issues that people who lack empathy and common sense see as issues impeding on their ability to not give a shit. These people are In other words - stupid people.

 

[bent1]

I read it’s a medallion or button on the bottom outside of the tumbler is afixed with a lead based adhesive & does not affect inside the cup.

Re the dishwasher & handwashing cleaners, I can see that issue.