Earthenware Containers as a Source of Fatal Lead Poisoning

The Cultural Parameters of Lead Poisoning: A Medical Anthropologist's View of Intervention in Environmental Lead Exposure

“…A second source is high lead content vessels and utensils used to prepare food or beverages for consumption. Exposure ranges from accidental poisoning from lead-glazed ceramic vessels to the deliberate use of lead containers for cooking, fermenting, or food storage (4,5).…”

Further cases of lead poisoning from wine

“…But in the instance under investigation the contamination occurred during fermentation in the mentioned vat. The lead content in the wine was much higher than is usual in commercial wines, which have been shown to contain average concentrations of lead of 50-300 pg/liter [Joulmes, 1960;Klein et al, 1970;Scansetti et al, 1980;Whitehead and Prior, 1960;Zenz, 1975;Zurlo and Griffini, 19731.…”

“…Accidental or intentional poisoning is also reported from beer, apple cider, and fruit juice [Griffin and Knelson, 19751. Another source of intoxication, reported mainly in the United States, is the consumption of illegal, "moonshine" whisky produced in home-made stills (for example, an old car radiator), which may release lead into the whisky. In some such cases the lead intake was reported to be greater than 1 mg/liter [Zenz, 19751. Lead intoxication due to ceramic vessels is a recognized problem, especially when they are hand-made and the craftsmen or artists have paid less attention to toxic problems than to esthetics [Browder, 1972;Dufour et al, 1972;Klein et al, 1970;Zenz, 19751. In this case the source of food or drink poisoning is the glaze that lines cooking ware to which lead was added for technical or esthetic reasons (either to produce a lower melting point or a greater luster) [Dickinson et al, 1972;Klein et al, 1970;Scansetti et al, 19801.…”

“…In some such cases the lead intake was reported to be greater than 1 mg/liter [Zenz, 19751. Lead intoxication due to ceramic vessels is a recognized problem, especially when they are hand-made and the craftsmen or artists have paid less attention to toxic problems than to esthetics [Browder, 1972;Dufour et al, 1972;Klein et al, 1970;Zenz, 19751. In this case the source of food or drink poisoning is the glaze that lines cooking ware to which lead was added for technical or esthetic reasons (either to produce a lower melting point or a greater luster) [Dickinson et al, 1972;Klein et al, 1970;Scansetti et al, 19801. Low-pH solutions (e.g., wine) cause release of lead that varies with the lead content in the glaze and other items such as pigment additions and kiln temperature at firing.…”

“…Poisoning caused by release of lead has been reported more recently by Beritic et al [ 19611, Whitehead and Prior [ 19601, Harris and Elsea [ 19621, and Klein et a1 [ 19701. In all these cases ceramic vessels were involved. Of 264 sample cases of vessels examined by Klein et al [1970], 35% were found to contain more than 100 ppm of lead.…”