Why are olympic medals made out of lead and lead based paint?

Question

Now I wonder what happends to the winners when they kiss there medal.

Answer 1

Because they are made in China by Mattel.

Answer 2

They are not made out of lead.

This link:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/greatev...

says the gold and silver medals are both "made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold."

It also says that "the last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912."

http://www.minerals.org.au/olympics/meda...  says that bronze medals are made out of copper, zinc, tin and silver.

The medal design is up to the hosts to make but there are size and composition requirements.  

All it takes is a simple search to find out; )

Answer 3

I thought they were pure gold, silver, and bronze. That is so sad if they are really lead. It wouldn't surprise me though. Since it is in China.  

Answer 4

Clinton Dines said the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games each require 1,000 gold medals, 1,000 silver medals, 1,000 bronze medals: a total of 6,000. Chile provided 13.04 kg of raw gold to make 2000 gold medals; and 0.83 tons of electrolytic copper for 2,000 bronze metals. Australia supplied 1.34 tons of raw silver for 2,000 silver medals.

It is said that the complexity of creating the medals, together with the special requirements from the International Olympic Committee, make the standards for the production process and materials very high for the jade rings in medals. In the jade ring production, the processing error will be no more than 1 / 3 of a human hair.

Answer 5

You're referring to a satire article which was written to be nothing but a funny joke.

Link to article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borow...

The medals are not poisonous and believing this would be like believing anything that The Onion (Famous for coming up with fake and comedic articles) produces.

So the Olympic Gold Medalists are safe, don’t worry!

Answer 6

The Important part of the Huffington Post article is the disclaimer at the bottom.

Andy Borowitz is a comedian and writer whose work appears in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and at his award-winning humor site, BorowitzReport.com. He hosts "Countdown to the Election, with special guests Joy Behar (The View) and Jeffrey Toobin (CNN, bestselling author of "The Nine") at the 92nd Street Y in NYC on October 22 at 8 PM.