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From: goodstorm@aol.com
Date: 16 Apr 1999
Time: 16:25:23
Hi everybody,
I've been lurking -- reading all these posts about radioactive dinnerware.
First, we all should be more worried about the LEAD content in old Red Wing. If that dinnerware was made today, many states would require a warning about the lead content.
As far as uranium oxide goes, people ARE STILL USING it in glazes today -- with the government OK. You may want to check out this Web site -- www.ceramicsoftware.com/education/glazes/oxides.htm
People who collect Fiesta dinnerware have been through this whole debate. Fiesta began in 1936 making a red-orange glaze from uranium oxide. People have since tagged it "radioactive red." In the 1940s the Atomic Energy Commision asked the company to stop using the oxide. The government wasn't concerned about safety of people eating off the plates. Rather, the panicky government thought some foreign nations would buy up zillions of plates for the trace amounts of the oxide. In 1959 the government again allowed Fiestaware to use the oxide. For more information see this Web site: www.mediumgreen.com/fiesta/red.html. There's also a good article on the whole thing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/30/1998.
(As an aside, as far as "Red Wing-Scarlet and Bay" pieces, I've never heard of any concern about the glaze, probably because nobody eats off a vase and because the glaze was even more diluted (a mix of brown, cream and orange glazes). But, man, I'd love for people to stop buying these pieces. How anyone noticed how the prices fo Scarlet and Bay are skyrocketing. I saw two down in Red Wing for over $160 each and both weren't even in mint condition! And the prices on e-bay sometimes are reaching lower-level Nokomis prices! Has anyone else noticed this trend?)
A few other facts:
- Some schools will use a Fiesta plate in class demonstrations of a Geiger counter. That's how safe the stuff is -- public schools will actualy use the plates as props.
- The FDA in 1977 said eating off Feista plates was completely safe.
- During the radon gas scare of the 1990s, the EPA determined that huge collections of Fiestaware posed no problems -- even in homes with very poor ventilation.
- A study at the University of Illinois found that a plate gave off lower levels of Geirger Counter activity than radium watches.
I'd like to know if anyone has similar information about the LEAD of Red Wing dinnerware. I've been told that in several states with tough consumer-protection laws, like California, that these plates would have to carry consumer warnngs if they were being made new today and sold in stores.