Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270172
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-8 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN/ NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a surprising finding, scientists from Columbia University in New York recently reported that tiny amounts of lead began to migrate within a few minutes after wine was poured into many lead crystal decanters and wine glasses.
Large amounts of lead were found in wine that had been stored for a long time in a decanter but the amounts varied widely among the crystal containers tested.
The Federal Food and Drug Administration and organizations representing the lead industry have begun independent studies to confirm the preliminary findings reported in The Lancet, a British medical journal, by Dr. Joseph H. Graziano and Dr. Conrad Blum at Columbia.
"We don't want to cause alarm," Graziano said in an interview, "but the possibility of causing illness deserves further study."
Graziano did not study human health hazards, like damage to the kidneys, bone marrow and nervous system, from long-term storage in lead crystal containers. Such risk assessments will require different types of studies by toxicologists and other experts.
The risks could vary depending on how much lead was absorbed by the body and whether an individual regularly drank small amounts of lead or occasionally consumed a large amount.
Jerry Burke, an official of the Food and Drug Administration, said the Lancet report had led his agency to conduct ongoing studies of lead crystal to learn more about how lead is leached from crystal and how often significant amounts are released.
Several manufacturers of lead crystal have begun studies of their products.
In addition, the Lead Industries Association Inc. of New York City said it and the International Lead Zinc Research Organization were sponsoring a study of crystal made in several countries to determine whether differences in manufacturing techniques substantially affected the amount of leaching.
Steuben of New York City, a division of Corning Inc., has temporarily suspended the manufacture and sale of its lead crystal decanters and flasks as a cautionary measure, a spokeswoman said.
She said Steuben had long advised customers not to store liquids in its decanters.
In an unpublished letter to The Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Graziano's team said it had also found that apple juice and infant formula leached lead from crystal baby bottles about as fast as alcohol does.
Because the developing nervous system of an infant is exquisitely sensitive to lead, the Columbia team suggested a ban on sales of the crystal bottles.
Waterford Wedgwood PLC has stopped manufacturing the crystal baby bottles, a spokeswoman for the Anglo-Irish company said.
The Columbia study on crystal began after Blum's pregnant wife urged him to check their crystal and he detected lead with a home test kit.
Graziano, a professor of pharmacology and pediatrics who is an expert in lead poisoning, said that at first he thought Blum "was nuts." But he agreed to check the findings with more advanced laboratory tests and was surprised at the results.
After port was poured into one decanter, periodic tests showed that the amount of lead in the liquid rose steadily over four months to 5,331 micrograms per liter from 89.
White wine began leaching lead within minutes of being poured into one crystal glass.
Graziano said that crystal glasses posed "a negligible risk" because the amount leached was tiny, but that long-term storage in decanters could be a problem.
Although there are no official safe limits for lead in wine, the researchers said the amounts found in alcohol stored for many years were comparable "to those in the notorious sweetened wines of Roman times" that caused serious lead poisoning.
by CNB