You possibly can see the pellet that Stanley refers to on the backside of your drink container. It seals these layers collectively the place all of them meet on the backside of the bottle, in a course of referred to as lead soldering. Technically, the vessel does comprise lead, however it’s enclosed with stainless-steel and will by no means are available contact along with your drink or pores and skin. Nonetheless, must you drop the water bottle or if it in any other case will get broken and this piece of metal comes unfastened, there’s an opportunity the lead will be uncovered to your pores and skin.
Lead is a naturally occurring poisonous metallic. The World Well being Group (WHO) cites that there is no such thing as a protected stage of lead publicity. “As soon as lead enters the physique, it’s distributed to organs such because the mind, kidneys, liver, and bones.” Excessive ranges of lead publicity will be deadly. With decrease ranges of publicity—which might occur with a microscopic quantity—lead poisoning in adults may cause nerve issues, decreased kidney perform, and fertility points. In kids, it may well trigger developmental delays and seizures. The WHO says kids are “notably weak to steer poisoning as a result of they soak up 4 to 5 occasions as a lot ingested lead as adults.”
“Lead is ubiquitous within the surroundings, so low ranges of every day publicity are a truth of life,” says Jane Houlihan, nationwide director of science and well being at Wholesome Infants Brilliant Futures. “Exposures and dangers add up daily from lead in meals, water, home mud, and soil. This makes it all of the extra necessary for corporations to maintain lead out of shopper merchandise. Kids don’t want one other potential supply of lead of their lives.”
What Do Different Manufacturers Use?
Lead soldering is low-cost and straightforward to make use of and is a typical follow from a wide range of producers. Nonetheless, different strategies can be found. A number of of the reusable water bottle corporations we reached out to don’t use lead of their manufacturing course of. Here is the listing:
- Owala (no lead), which makes in style bottles just like the FreeSip and a Stanley-dupe tumbler, says it has by no means used lead in its manufacturing course of. “The manufacturing of vacuum-sealed containers utilizing lead-free solder is extra pricey and sophisticated. Nonetheless, we made a dedication from day one with Owala to make use of lead-free solder on our bottles,” an Owala spokesperson says.
- Hydro Flask (no lead since 2013), one other internet-famous water bottle firm, stopped utilizing lead solder greater than 10 years in the past. “By mid-2013, the lead was out of the Hydro Flask manufacturing course of as a result of the model designed a proprietary sealant, TempShield,” a Hydro Flask spokesperson says.
- Klean Kanteen (no lead) additionally forgoes lead, as a substitute utilizing a noncrystalline silica bead to create its vacuum-insulated bottles. “The method, utilizing silica as a substitute of lead, is identical besides larger warmth is required to soften the silica,” says Wealthy Haver, the corporate’s director of world operations. Whereas some types of silica will be harmful if very fantastic particles are inhaled—sand is produced from crystalline silica, so even finer than that—this does not apply to noncrystalline silica glass. “Silica in its noncrystalline type doesn’t have the identical respiratory well being properties as crystalline silica,” says Marty Cohen, a instructing professor within the Division of Environmental and Occupational Well being Sciences on the College of Washington.
- MiiR (lead used) confirmed its use of lead in its manufacturing course of with a few of its merchandise. Based on its web site, “This pellet does comprise lead for manufacturing effectivity, waste discount, and to make sure a whole seal. For these causes and since there’s zero lead publicity, MiiR makes use of this course of with confidence.”
- LifeStraw (lead used) makes straws and filtered bottles that take away micro organism, microplastics, and parasites from water. We actually favored the Go Sequence Filtered Water Bottle because of this. That makes it essentially the most shocking firm to verify it makes use of “a lead soldering dot as a part of the manufacturing sealing course of.”
- Different manufacturers (unknown): The next corporations haven’t responded to our requests for remark: Yeti, S’effectively, HydroJug, and Greens Metal. (Sigg responded however has not given us a solution but. We’ll replace this story after they do.)
The Downside With Lead in Manufacturing
Even when the cup or bottle isn’t broken and also you’re by no means uncovered to steer, if it is used within the manufacturing course of, staff are nonetheless across the materials in a roundabout way. The solder coaching institute EPTAC says on its web site that the quantity of lead on solders is probably going not going to trigger extreme well being issues, however there’s nonetheless a danger for staff uncovered to steer throughout the course of.
“When lead is utilized in manufacturing, there’s a danger of lead publicity for shoppers of these merchandise, particularly for merchandise meant to be used in meals consumption, like drinkware,” says a consultant for the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. “There’s additionally a possible occupational security danger for staff and, with out correct safeguards, could possibly be a danger for staff’ households by take-home lead exposures.”
In case your Stanley bottle or cup will get broken, you possibly can ask for a substitute beneath Stanley’s lifetime guarantee. We requested Stanley if clients might return undamaged cups, or if the corporate plans to vary its manufacturing course of, however it solely pointed us to the identical data web page about its use of lead.
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