Leaching of Lead into Whiskey from Ceramic Decanter Glazing

[unclebunk]

I just drink whatever I find and limit the amount per session when pouring from an old lead decanter. Something's gonna kill me--it might as well be whiskey!

[bmajazz]

FWIW, I got an 8-pack of 3m lead testers. Easy to use, and highly rated. I used them on a number of ceramic decanters I had, and found:

I.W. Harper barrel decanter (90 proof, 120? month): tested positive for lead
Michter's King Tut and '76 bicentennial 1/2 pt jug: negative for lead

That's all I had lying around. I have a 1.75L Tut that is unopened. I might just open it..

Keep in mind that I tested the outside of these sealed decanters.

[Enoch]

FWIW, I got an 8-pack of 3m lead testers. Easy to use, and highly rated. I used them on a number of ceramic decanters I had, and found:

I.W. Harper barrel decanter (90 proof, 120? month): tested positive for lead
Michter's King Tut and '76 bicentennial 1/2 pt jug: negative for lead

That's all I had lying around. I have a 1.75L Tut that is unopened. I might just open it..

Keep in mind that I tested the outside of these sealed decanters.

Where did you get the lead testers?

[ethangsmith]

Michter's tested lead free huh? Maybe I'll try and score a few of these kits and test all my Michter's decanters. That would be quite interesting if they are actually lead free!

[bmajazz]

I got the lead testing kit on Amazon. the 8 pack seemed reasonable, not super cheap but lead poisoning is not worth it!

It also comes with a lead coated test strip paper that you can use to verify that the tester is good. That way, no false negatives!

Brain dead simple to use. If it turns red, it has lead.

[bmajazz]

Update: I just got a couple of new decanters. The Michters Tut decanters (and a Nefertiti) tested negative for lead. Also, two Beam decanters I tested (100 month, Reno 100th anniversary; JB Choice, greek amphora) both tested negative. Also I have two little Henry McKenna 1/10pt jugs, not sure if they are ceramic but they look so. Both negative.

Anyone else? Have there been any developments on this topic?

[wripvanwrinkle]

Update: I just got a couple of new decanters. The Michters Tut decanters (and a Nefertiti) tested negative for lead. Also, two Beam decanters I tested (100 month, Reno 100th anniversary; JB Choice, greek amphora) both tested negative. Also I have two little Henry McKenna 1/10pt jugs, not sure if they are ceramic but they look so. Both negative.

Anyone else? Have there been any developments on this topic?

If it is worth the 15 bucks to you to do so, go to Home Depot and buy the Pro Labs kit. Send them the sample, and then you will know the exact lead level. As they are using a mass spectrometer, their measurements are going to be very accurate. For what it is worth, my first tests were with "home tests" as well. All of those tests showed "negative" for lead even though the mass spectrometer found very high levels within samples from the same bottle.

In brief, all I can say is that my WT decanters from the 1970's show high levels of lead contamination. Once you consume lead, it takes about a month to get rid of half of it. For my sample with its amount of lead within a 50ml drink (1.83 ug/dL), if I had 1 drink from my bottle each week then I would reach the EPA perceived "harmful" level within 6-7 weeks.

Personally, knowing this, I wouldn't regularly drink from these bottles (which stinks because I decanted my "score" into about 12 750ml bottles.) For me, the 1970's WT rummy yumminess doesn't outweigh my peace of mind. Off topic, but when my wife sees a bottle of Wild Turkey she alwas asks "leaded or unleaded?"

Having said that, I still don't completely avoid decanters. Over the last 12 months I've had 2 decanted drinks: an Eagle Rare from Lawrenceburg and some 1950's Old Fitz. The opportunity to try the whiskey outweighed the risk. Then again, I personally would not do so every week. I probably wouldn't even do so once a month.

[wripvanwrinkle]

Is it possible for a Mod to fix the spelling error that I made in the thread title? "Decater" versus "Decanter"?

[callmeox]

Your OCD should be more at ease now.

[p_elliott]

Is it possible for a Mod to fix the spelling error that I made in the thread title? "Decater" versus "Decanter"?

You expect me to spell