China Makers Agree to Cut Lead Use, Warn Consumers : Environment: Settlement with 10 firms is largest under anti-toxics initiative. Wide impact on industry is expected.

Ten of the largest manufacturers of china have agreed to reduce the lead content of their dishware and pay up to $3.6 million for failing to warn consumers about the risks of lead exposure, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund announced Friday.

Under the settlement, the companies must provide retailers with distinctive, school bus yellow stickers to warn consumers of the potential hazard from dishes that continue to exceed levels specified in state law. Even at relatively low levels, exposure to lead is known to cause brain damage and birth defects because the element accumulates in the body.

Although the settlement directly affects only 10 companies, representing about 10% of china sold in the California, it is expected to have an impact felt around the world and throughout the industry. Money from the agreement can be used to accelerate testing of other products and competitors will come under pressure to change their manufacturing processes to reduce lead content.

The settlement is the largest under Proposition 65, the 1986 anti-toxics initiative, and brings to an end lawsuits filed more than a year ago against china manufacturers whose cups, plates and bowls expose users to low levels of lead.

Among the companies settling are some of the largest and most prestigious producers of china, including Royal Doulton, Lenox, Mikasa and Wedgwood.

“We expect most other china makers will be eager to sign on under the same terms in this program to phase lead out of their manufacturing processes,” Lungren said. “For those that do not do it voluntarily, we will proceed as we have in this situation.”

David Roe, senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund and an author of Proposition 65, said: “Today’s settlement means that the biggest lead hazard in the American diet is now on its way out. . . . Even though there is lead in many kinds of dishes, there doesn’t need to be, and the industry is accepting a program that will get the lead out.”

Roe predicted that informed consumers will opt for lead-free products and that resulting marketplace pressures will force all manufacturers to find alternatives to lead in the making of china.

“The better the warning, the fewer the number of plates that are going to need it,” Roe said. “And that’s because the manufacturers will try extra hard to get the lead out and keep the label off. And if they don’t, their customers will do it for them.”

The 10 companies and their trade association, the Washington-based Coalition for Safe Ceramicware, believe that consumers will continue to buy patterns that contain some lead once they learn that the dishware meets Food and Drug Administration and state tableware safety standards, even if it exceeds levels that require Proposition 65 warnings.

The Proposition 65 standard requires a warning if the consumer would ingest as little as one-half of one microgram (a millionth of a gram) per day.

“There’s no such thing as a leadless product,” said the association’s executive director, David A. Hartquist. “Lead is everywhere. It’s in the air, it’s in the water, it’s in spinach and carrots.”

But the possibility of “monumental” penalties under Proposition 65--as much as $2,500 per plate per day--drove the industry leaders toward a settlement, he said.

Hartquist said that the 10 companies are urging other members of the coalition--about 200 companies--to sign on to the settlement.

He said coalition members may work with the attorney general’s office and the Environmental Defense Fund in testing competitors’ products to identify those with lead because the companies “definitely have an interest in keeping the bad actors off the market.”

Hartquist said that lead is used in many glazes because it helps produce a more durable surface that is resistant to scratches and cracks. Without the lead, some patterns of chinaware would prove difficult to clean, collecting bacteria and carrying the risk of health problems.

But many dishes contain little or no lead, including stoneware and clear glass. White china is generally less likely to contain significant amounts of lead than highly decorated, multicolored ceramic ware.

Under the terms of the settlement, which won approval in San Francisco Superior Court on Friday, the 10 companies agreed to pay $1.3 million in attorneys’ fees, investigative costs and penalties. In addition, the manufacturers will pay $1 million into a special education and enforcement fund, which will provide pamphlets as well as television and newspaper advertising and a toll-free phone information service.

Each manufacturer will test its products using a standard procedure. All companies must reduce lead levels over the next five years by up to 50% in products that exceed the Proposition 65 standards. Failure to do so would result in an additional $1.3 million in penalties.

Other tableware manufacturers that have signed onto the agreement include Fitz and Floyd, Noritake, Villeroy & Boch, Pickard, Pfaltzgraff and Syracuse China.

The agreement requires the manufacturers to notify restaurants that purchased chinaware that contains lead. The restaurants must post signs warning customers of possible exposure.

Proposition 65 does not require that the manufacturers eliminate the lead in dishes--only that they warn consumers of the potential hazard. But the china makers agreed to phase out lead as part of the settlement.

Lungren vigorously defended his decision to join environmental groups in a series of lead-related suits, including an action to force winemakers to eliminate the lead in foil wrappers and a recent suit against faucet manufacturers.

“Why do we spend so much time and attention on lead?” Lungren asked at a news conference. “It’s because it is such a pervasive element in our environment, and we know it has deleterious effects, particularly on young people, particularly on pregnant women. And to the extent that we can remove the exposures to lead to the general population, especially those individuals, we will have achieved a real public health benefit.”

For all the controversy at time of its passage, Proposition 65 has succeeded in reducing risks from a number of potentially harmful products. Rather than put dire health warnings on labels or post signs in stores, manufacturers often have chosen to reformulate products, including paint strippers and liquid white-out.

“This law is not a lead ban,” Roe said. “This law is a consumer information law. It says if you have lead above a certain level, you must let people know.”

Because of the lawsuit against the 10 manufacturers, some competitors have been promoting their products as lead-free.

Lungren and Roe said there is no reason for the public to panic even if there is uncertainty about the lead content of dishes. There are a number of steps consumers can take to avoid lead exposure--such as not storing acidic foods in ceramic containers and not heating a cup of coffee in the microwave.

Scientists with the Environmental Defense Fund initiated the action after testing showed that some plates could expose users to levels that were more than 100 times the amount requiring a warning under Proposition 65. These amounts, if consumed over a long period, could cause blood levels similar to those of children poisoned after consuming chips of lead-containing paints.

Many manufacturers now provide information about the lead content of the patterns they produce. Testing kits are also available to the public.

Chinaware Warning

In the settlement of a lawsuit, 10 major manufacturers of chinaware have agreed to place distinctive yellow stickers on or near lead-containing plates on display in retail stores, and other dish makers are expected to follow suit. To explain the yellow triangles, retailers must post this sign near chinaware displays.