TikTokers Claim Stanley Cups Contain Lead—But Is It True? The Brand Responds
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TikTokers claim their Stanley tumblers contain lead, prompting concern.
The manufacturer responded to claims in a series of statements.
Keep reading for those comments, plus what to know about the dangers of lead poisoning.
Over the last year, concerns over the lead content in beloved Stanley tumblers have come to a boil, namely after Tamara Rubin, a lead safety advocate and owner of Lead Safe Mama, posted a video showing the positive result of a LeadCheck test on a 40 oz. cup. Since then, dozens of people have run to conduct their own at-home lead tests, gleaning various results. Stanley has responded to the uproar in a series of statements.
Do Stanley cups contain lead?
In a statement given to Today, a rep for the drinkware company confirmed that lead is used in the Stanley manufacturing process. However, the product needs to be damaged in order to expose it. To explain further, the rep said that, on the bottom of each insulated tumbler is a stainless steel protective shell that covers a lead-containing pellet used to seal the cups’ vacuum insulations. The rep added that it is “rare” for the barrier to be broken and the pellet exposed.
In a separate statement to WCNC, another Stanley spokesperson stressed that the lead, in no manner, comes into contact with the liquid inside of the cups and that the manufacturing process is in line with federal regulations. “Please rest assured that no lead is present on the surface of any Stanley product that comes in contact with you or the contents of your container,” the statement read. “Every Stanley product meets all U.S. regulatory requirements, including California Proposition 65, which requires businesses to provide warnings to Californians about heavy metal and chemical exposure.”
Rubin became a lead poisoning advocate after her children were poisoned by lead dust in the early 2000s. Over the last two decades, she has successfully lobbied for the recall of multiple products, she told Today, including other insulated drinkware. Her concern over Stanley’s lead content, specifically, isn’t in regards to drinking the lead, she said in an Instagram video, but touching it on a damaged cup and ingesting dust via hand-to-mouth activity, like eating, which is a confirmed method of lead dust transmission by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This concern is heightened in regards to children, Rubin stressed, especially after a family she worked with was affected after their child “playfully smashed” their oatmeal with the bottom of a water bottle where lead was exposed,” she told Today. Rubin also said that in her communications with Stanley users, many—an estimated hundreds—have experienced the cups’ protective bottoms come off easily.
Lead poisoning risks
Why might concern over trace lead content be warranted? Lead is an abundant, naturally occurring metal in soil, and has been used in various products including gasoline, paint, plumbing pipes, ceramics, solders, batteries, cosmetics, and even beverages like juice over the last 50-plus years, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
Because it poses a health hazard, the material was phased out of use in most of those products throughout the late 1900s, but lead still circulates, environmentally and in products, today. According to the NIEHS, although no amount of lead is safe, most people have some amount in their bloodstreams, which is most likely to affect children, developmentally. That said, the CDC’s recommended blood lead reference value (BLRV) for children is 3.5 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL). Blood levels at or less than 5 µg/dL in children may result in diminished IQ scores and academic achievement, and increased behavioral problems and attention-related behaviors, per the NIEHS. Levels at or less than 10 µg/dL are associated with increases in behavioral effects, delays in puberty, and decreases in hearing, cognitive performance, and postnatal growth or height.
Adults with high BLRVs typically work in industrial environments with a higher potential for exposure, per the NIEHS. Blood lead levels below 10 µg/dl in adults are associated with decreased kidney function and increases in blood pressure, hypertension, and tremors.
All of this said, it’s worth noting that not all at-home lead testing kits are accurate. LeadCheck tests like the one Rubin used, however, have been found able to detect the presence or absence of lead in 96.6% of pieces tested, per a report from the United States Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). As for other tests, OSHA notes that interference happens easily, and therefore, samples should be sent to a certified lab for further testing.
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