Is There Lead Exposure From Stainless Steel

November 5, 2012, by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from green-earth

Hi Debra, I was wondering if you think that there might have been any contamination of metals in this situation. 

I decided to boil a pair of eyebrow tweezers in a stainless steel pot to sanitize them, but I'm not sure if the eyebrow tweezers themselves were stainless or not, and I think they were made in China. After they were done boiling, there was a black rim in the bottom of the pot and I'm not sure why. 

Do you think I should be concerned about lead in this case? The pot was put in the dishwasher too, so do you think that if there was lead in the pot it would be a concern for the rest of the dishes? Thanks 

Debra's Answer

First, there is no lead used to make stainless steel. Even if your tweezers were made in China, I don't see any reason why they would randomly add lead to the stainless steel formula. Stainless steel does contain other toxic metals (see Is Stainless Steel Safe?) but it does not contain lead. It may even not even set up correctly if they added lead to the formula, so I doubt that any stainless steel contains lead.

I'm not sure why there was a black rim at the bottom of the pot, and I'm not concerned about the rest of the dishes.

Read more about safe cookware choices in our Cookware Buying Guide.