Dear Fiesta Tableware, Please remove the “Lead-free” language from your marketing & please stop using Cadmium (a known carcinogen) in your glazes.

Continue reading below the images.
See full chart with test results at the bottom of the article.

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Friday – October 7, 2022 

The Fiesta Tableware Company products have historically tested positive for many heavy metals – including traces (or large amounts) of Lead – depending on the age, significant amounts of Cadmium (depending on the age and color), and sometimes even traces of other heavy metals including Arsenic, Cobalt, and Antimony. That said, they are one of the safer brands of glazed ceramics out there, from a Lead-perspective (when looking at their newly-manufactured products) – BUT, they are still guilty of a few transgressions that seem counter to their business model – transgressions that I wish they would correct.

#1) These products are not consistently Lead-free

First and foremost, Fiesta Tableware needs to once and for all remove all references to the products being “Lead-free”. For a time there (and perhaps still in certain production runs), the products used to be stamped / embossed with the words “Lead Free” on the bottom, OR they had “Lead Free” printed on the bottom in black ink. Unfortunately, these products are not consistently Lead-free.

Regardless of what industry-generated double-speak you may have read or heard, “Lead-free” means what it sounds like: it MEANS there is no Lead at all in a product. Depending on which industry you talk to, the industry representatives (or corporate representatives) might assert that “Lead-free” means “a product doesn’t LEACH Lead”; if you talk to a representative from the plumbing industry, they might assert that “Lead-free” means “less than 2,500 ppm Lead.” Neither of these is true; if we restrict ourselves to the the actual meaning of the words…”Lead-free” means “free of any Lead (i.e. There is NO LEAD in this product).

Many potteries use the language “Lead-free glazes” because they know for a fact their glazes are Lead-free, even when trace levels of Lead might be found in the ceramic substrates of their products. HOWEVER, Fiesta Tableware, as you can see from the screenshot directly above from their website – captured on October 6, 2022, does NOT state “Lead-free glazes“, they instead use the language “Fully vitrified lead-free china with a color glaze.” This statement is a fundamental misstatement of fact – as you can see from the chart below (with eight current 2022 colors tested so far) FIVE of the eight examples have tested positive for Lead. It is for this reason we are (with this article) requesting (in earnest) that the Fiesta Tableware Company remove all of the “Lead-free” language from their website and other marketing materials (as they have already done in removing this language from the dishes themselves.)

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#2) These products consistently test positive for levels of Cadmium.
Cadmium is a known carcinogen.

One would expect that the reasoning behind the Fiesta Tableware Company choosing to market their products as a Lead-free alternative is because they want to make sure their customers think of them as a “healthier choice” for their families. I would expect this is partly true. I think they also might want to do this to make up for their legacy products having extremely high and incredibly unsafe levels of Lead…so in effect, they are also attempting to repair their image with this “Lead-free” marketing. 

If we generously consider the first (more altruistic) interpretation — that they are marketing these products as Lead-free out of a genuine commitment to creating healthier products for their customers, then there is absolutely no defensible reason for them to be using ANY amount Cadmium in ANY of their color formulations. But – as you can see from the chart at the bottom of the page, SIX of the eight 2022 colors tested so far have tested positive for some amount of Cadmium, and THREE of those are at levels that government regulators in Washington State – as well as the Country of Denmark – consider unsafe for dishware and consumer goods (the Washington State hazard level for total content of Cadmium in dishware is 40 ppm, and the Danish standard is that consumer goods should not test positive for more than 75 ppm Cadmium).

We are therefore herewith publicly requesting that the Fiesta Tableware Company do the right thing by their customers and REMOVE all Cadmium (even trace levels) from their glaze formulations. There is no defensible reason to have a known carcinogen in the food surface glaze of dishware in this day and age.

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#3) Traces of other heavy metals found in many of the colors

One color of their 2022 offerings, also tested positive for trace Antimony (another known carcinogen), and high levels of Cobalt, Tin and Barium were also present in several of their colors. These are all heavy metals with potentially devastating impacts on humans and again – should, in principle, not be found in modern ceramic glazes (see the chart below for which colors have which specific metals).

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#4) But isn’t Fiesta Tableware a safer choice?

As I have written many times before, Fiesta Tableware might be one of the safer glazed ceramic choices out there (from a heavy metals perspective), but I personally would never choose dishes for my family for daily use that tested positive for these heavy metal toxicants (especially when there are many, many toxicant-free inexpensive choices available).

While leach-testing is done on new dishes for SOME of these metals, it is my understanding that leach-testing is not required to prove safety for all of the metals found in the Fiesta Tableware glazes. That said, the levels of Lead found in these dishes are safe by all current national (United States) and international standards {and I am also certain that these dishes do not LEACH Lead at the time of manufacture (given the low levels found).

The concern with the presence of any toxic metals on the food surface of dishware is that, over time – these metals may start to leach (with wear, washing, use with heat, and acidic foods, etc.) So leach-testing as a litmus test for safety of dishware is temporally restricted to when the dishes are new and the glazed surfaces are not worn or deteriorating in any way. You can read more about this here – link. Separately — today, the bright colors that are a signature of Fiesta Tableware can easily be created with non-toxic (heavy-metals-free) glazes.

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#5) A toxic legacy

In writing this article, I would be remiss if I did not emphasize the extreme level of toxicity in The Fiesta Tableware Company’s historic dishware. There are examples on this website of antique / vintage Fiesta Tableware that have test results in the many hundreds of thousands of parts per million Lead. For context, any surface paint, glaze, or coating is considered unsafe for use by children if it tests positive for Lead at 90 ppm or more. Please take a look at the following examples:

• Vintage Yellow:  563,800 ppm Lead
• Vintage Light Blue: 289,400 ppm Lead
• Vintage Twilight Blue: 295,200 ppm Lead

After taking some time to learn about and understand the science behind the concerns for the metals highlighted in the chart below, if you still choose to use Fiesta Tableware for your family PLEASE make sure it is the modern / recently-manufactured products and NEVER use the vintage / antique products for food use purposes. Once again, there is no safe level of Lead exposure for humans.

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For those new to this website

Tamara Rubin is a Federal-award-winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. Tamara’s sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in August of 2005. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009 and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. Her work was also responsible for two CPSC product recalls in the summer of 2022, the Jumping Jumperoo recall (June 2022) and the Lead painted NUK baby bottle recall (July 2022) and was featured in an NPR story about Lead in consumer goods in August of 2022. Tamara uses XRF testing (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 and reported on. Please click through to this link to learn more about the testing methodology used for the test results discussed and reported on this website.