And no, I didn't have anything tested.

@mexifelio: While not openly our enemy, neither is China our friend. It may be well for us to remember that.

find a local potter. buy some beautiful, one of kind plates from them. not only will you be buying something entirely safe (most potters mix their glazes by hand and can tell you down to the last gram what the ingredients are), but you're doing a good deed by supporting your local artists. and lord knows, we need more of that.

(full disclosure: i am a potter :)

Argh! Plates containing some amount of lead is not news, nor is it illegal. The test for leachable lead, which is what you need to pass as a manufacturer and what matters as a practical matter of course, has always been predicated on the amount of lead that matters is that which ends up in food and thus ends up in your body. Lead that is inaccessible to you is not going to hurt you, unless you actually eat the plate or (MAYBE) if you eat from a broken or badly chipped plate (which is already a bad idea for obvious reasons). XRF testing, as the PDF states, is NOT going to tell you how much lead will end up in food.

It'd be interesting to see if all these people went home and threw out all the lead-containing items.

Plus, they're thin and easy to stack in the cupboard.

I think the problem with the early fiestaware was radiation not lead.

Paper plates for me now.

Fiestaware is "Fiesta USA".
I think "Fiesta" (no USA or "Homer Laughlin") must be something else.

Or, you know, I hope so, cause I eat from Fiestaware every day.

None of those things are true-- I felt bad for the sick baby and her parents (who did nothing wrong!), but I was skeptical that her doctor was so certain this was all due to the lead.

It seems if just about all children and adults are being exposed to lead through plates and toys (and I'm sure that didn't just start this year), and I've read despite that people have *much* lower blood lead rates than 30-40 years ago when it was in paint and dust everywhere, then why isn't there an epidemic of illness from it? Is it perhaps possible that humans are a bit more resilient and smaller exposures to lead aren't quite as harmful as we thought?

Obviously we shouldn't test this or just hope it's true, and it's better to be safe and make sure lead-tainted plates, mugs, and especially children's toys are recalled, but I do feel like there might be a bit of over-reaction by the media on this issue...

@QuiteSpunky:

with all the absolutely stupid things people are doing these days, maybe there is.

as far as glazed stoneware, the lead has to be in the glaze, and if the glaze is high fired it should not be able to leach into food. however, if the glaze does not reach a certain temperature it can leach and is obviously not meant for contact with food.

chinet is starting to look better and better...

Did anyone else see that cop tasering some dude clip?