Vintage “Fire King” tulip bowl set: 19,300 ppm lead.
The amount of lead that is toxic in items intended for children is 90 parts per million and higher. Total lead content in vintage dishware is not regulated at all.
Here’s are links to some new (inexpensive AND lead-free) mixing bowl choices on Amazon.*
- Single 4-quart clear glass mixing bowl – $11.45
- 10-piece clear glass mixing bowl set – $24.99
- Set of 6 Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls – $21.95
Read more about testing dishes here.
For more #SaferChoices for your family, click here.
To make a contribution in support of my independent consumer goods testing and lead poisoning prevention advocacy work, click here. Thank you!
*Amazon links are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking one of these links I will receive a small percentage of what you spend, at no extra cost to you! Thank you!
With light shining through it you can easily see the areas where the high lead decorative paint has worn over the years. It just takes a microscopic amount of lead to poison a child.
This is confusing to me because Fire King/Anchor Hocking explicitly say that no lead was ever used in their production. Do they mean in the production of the bowl itself and they’re not addressing the paint? Why have you tested so few FK pieces? Is their lead content as high for, say, the red and blue ceramic, glass-topped, storage containers as the Pyrex?
Fundamentally companies lie, especially about their historic products. The lie in sneaky ways too – that is more double-speak than flat out blatant lies… “We have always complied with all federal standards” – is language often used when something is brought to their attention for which a federal standard did not apply, does not apply (or at least did not apply at the time they made the object.) Here’s a similar response from corning (and I have other corporate responses like this on the blog): https://tamararubin.com/2019/12/vintage-1972-1988-corning-ware-spice-o-life-casserole-26500-ppm-lead-236-ppm-cadmium-textbook-response-from-corningware-today/
I test what readers send me to test – which is why there are few Fire King products here. Here’s how the testing on the blog works:
https://tamararubin.com/2019/08/tamara-can-i-send-you-one-of-my-dishes-to-test-for-lead/
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Tamara
is fire king glass bowl with tulips have heavy metals in the actual glassware or only in painted tulips? we have my mother’s old bowls that are identical to these. thank you
Both – but you may want to read this post:
https://tamararubin.com/2020/07/if-the-lead-is-only-on-the-outside-of-my-dish-measuring-cup-mixing-bowl-etc-why-does-it-matter-that-it-has-lead/
Tamara