“Sliver” Swiss cheese knife: 19,300 +/- 800 ppm Lead in handle (for context: ≥90 ppm is unsafe in children’s items)

  

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For those new to the Lead Safe Mama 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 four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!

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Full XRF reading set for this knife

When tested with an XRF instrument, the handle of this little Swiss cheese knife had the following readings:

• Lead (Pb): 19,300 +/- 800 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): 820 +/- 144 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 3,377 +/- 260 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 398,300 +/- 3,200 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 448,300 +/- 3,100 ppm
• Nickel (Ni): 112,900 +/- 1,400 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 6,974 +/- 478 ppm
• Silver (Ag): 6,620 +/- 290 ppm

What’s unique or important about this knife?

This little knife is an excellent example of how sometimes, flatware in general (and cutlery specifically) can often have two components made out of very different types of metal — and when it does have two types of metal (usually stainless for the functional food-use component and some sort of pot metal or other decorative metal for the handle), it is highly likely the handle might test positive for Lead. This is especially true for things that may appear to be silver, silver-plated, OR appear to be yellow brass/ have a gold look (similar to yellow brass).

This knife is especially concerning because it is “just” a (soft) cheese knife; it is exactly the sort of “safe” knife a parent might let an older young child (like a 3, 4, or 5-year-old) play with to cut cheese (under supervision). I have a real concern this would likely cause Lead particles to rub off onto a child’s hand (with a handle that is positive for such a high level of Lead as this one is) and it is not likely that a child would wash their hands in-between handling a knife like this and touching and eating food.

Takeaway

Stick with all stainless for your utensils, even for fancy occasions! Also: Avoid vintage food-use items whenever possible (this knife is not vintage!).

Thank you for reading and for sharing this work.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama