Ace Hardware Branded Christmas Lights, 2018 Warning: "This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead."

“This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead…”

I stopped in at our local Ace Hardware the other day to check out their selection of Christmas lights. The images on this page are of one set of lights from that store.

These are the Ace Hardware-branded lights (ACH Trading Co.) and it appeared that all of the holiday lights in the store were this brand. I did not notice any signage or labeling on any of the products that indicated there were any that were Lead-free — although it’s possible I missed something. I also was not in a position to purchase any of these items to test at that time.

While I don’t know for certain if this product has Lead, it certainly has the disclaimer stating that it “can” have Lead — and I would love to test some to find out.

I personally would recommend avoiding purchasing any new (2018) Christmas or holiday light strands with this labeling (until I can at least test some to determine whether or not they do in fact have Lead, as high levels of Lead in these types of light strands has historically been a recurring problem).

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading and for sharing this work!

Check out this link for some Lead-free holiday light strands.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

For those new to this website:

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005). Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific method used by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic). All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Items are tested multiple times to confirm the test results for each component tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).