Dishes and Glassware

Before you wine and dine, it's a good idea to make sure you won't be ingesting lead from your crystal and china. Lead can damage the kidneys, brain and nervous system and poses the number-one environmental health threat to children. It accumulates in the body, so even small amounts can add up to a health hazard. In 2002 a U.S. child got lead poisoning from an Arcopal bowl made in France. "The elevated blood lead level was picked up on routine screening," says Maida Galvez, M.D., a researcher at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "The child is healthy now and doing well, but we recommend that if a parent is concerned about a bowl or plate, he or she should do a quick lead test," Galvez adds (see below).

Since 1980, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the state of California have regulated the amount of lead and cadmium, another toxic heavy metal, in dishes made in the U.S.A. but not in imported dinnerware or lead crystal. The crystal industry has set voluntary limits. What to do?

1. Test ceramics and crystal with strips from osha.gov or your hardware store. If any lead shows up, it's safest not to use.

2. Browse a list of lead-free china patterns at www.environmentaldefense.org.

3. Check your tableware at www.fda.gov.

Below are some lead-free options.

Product Picks

Recycled glass: Handcrafted seaglass plates and bowls by Riverside Design Group ($132/4-piece set; www.pangaya.com, 800-872-6618). Dishes and cups from Fire and Light's dinner plate ($29), small tumbler ($19) (www.fireandlight.com, 800-844-2223). Recycled Glassworks makes dishes from old windows ($20 and up; www.recycledglassworks.com, 415-641-5610). Green Glass fashions goblets from old Bordeaux bottles ($35/set of 4; www.greenglass.org, 715-355-1897).

Fast-growing grass: Hand-coiled dishes of renewable bamboo finished with food-safe lacquer from Bambu ($4-$20; www.bambuhome.com, 877-226-2829).

Safer ceramics: Homer Laughlin China's retro colorful Fiesta line ($89/16-piece set; www.hlchina.com, 800-452-4462). Other safe, low-lead ceramic dishes listed on the Environmental Defense website include Pfaltzgraff, Lenox and Spode.