Lead poisoning in a family due to cocktail glasses

Further cases of lead poisoning from wine

“…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.…”