Is lead in all stoneware, or only those with colorful and intricate designs? Help me, please? Need to know!?

Question

Ookay. I have some Stoneware and Ceramic Plates, and I realize that essentially 90% of glazed dinnerware is contaminated with lead, in sufficiently high enough quantities that people have actually gotten lead poisoning from eating off of and storing food in these things.

I have a few Stoneware plates that were made in Japan, and are probably seven or eight years old. They are solid white, and although they have a few ridge-like designs imprinted as embroidery around the top edges, have no colors. Does this mean that they're probably lead free, or could the glaze still be ridden and laden with lead content?

In addition - my parents refuse to convert to glass dinnerware, and insist on using what is obviously a threat and danger to both their own, and my health also - especially mine, moreover, since I'm only in my teens, and my brain still has some developing left to do.

I intend to put my foot down and refuse to eat off any ceramic or stoneware dinnerware - only things made of glass (not lead crystal, of course). But this still beckons the question: "Can anything else that's put in the washer with the ceramics and stoneware get contaminated with lead?"

Answer 1

If it was made as dinnerware in Japan only 8 years ago, it probably does not contain lead.  You might be able to find the website for the manufacturer.  Most of the recent Pb poisoning from pottery glaze (it is typically the glaze and not the ceramic itself) comes from the developing countries, Mexico, central america, SE asia, etc.  I doubt that 90% of glazed dinnerware poses any threat of poisoning people.   People have been eating off of ceramic plates for a long time.  There are tests that can be done. People who inspect houses for Pb paint often use X-ray fluorescence which could be used on the ceramic without damaging it.