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February 24, 2000

GROUP FINDS CANDLES CONTAINING LEAD

By David Ho ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Candles with potentially dangerous lead wicks are turning up on store shelves despite a voluntary ban by U.S. candle makers, a consumer group said today.

Public Citizen said it purchased 285 candles from a dozen stores in the Washington-Baltimore area, including 86 different candles with metal wicks. Laboratory tests found that nine of the candles with metal wicks contained high amounts of lead, between 33 percent and 85 percent by weight.

The study concluded that when the lead-wick candles burn for three hours they can produce average air lead concentrations ranging from nine to 33 times higher than recommended by federal guidelines. The group is petitioning the government to ban the candles.

Children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can cause a variety of ailments, ranging from lower intelligence and learning disabilities to seizures and death.

In 1974, candles with lead wicks were common and while an investigation by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found no signs of a specific health risk, as a precaution, the CPSC and the candle industry reached a voluntary agreement to stop using wicks containing lead.

But some consumer advocates say the agreement isn't enough.

``How many more children will suffer lead poisoning before the CPSC fulfills its legal mandate to rid the country of this completely unnecessary source of lead poisoning?'' said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.

Consumers can identify candles containing lead by peeling back the unburned cotton wick, exposing the metal core, and then rubbing it on white paper. A zinc wick, the most common type, will leave no trace, but a lead core will leave a gray mark like a pencil.

Prompted by comments from consumers and researchers, the safety commission has been conducting its own investigation since late last year, spokesman Russ Rader said.

``We don't know that there is any kind of health hazard associated with leaded candles,'' he said. ``Anytime we get reports of lead involving consumer products it's a concern of ours.''

Rader said the safety commission had not finished its research, but it was looking into the increasing number of candles imported from other countries. He added that the greatest lead threat to children remains flaking lead paint in older buildings.

About a billion candles are manufactured in the United States each year, and consumer retail sales for 1999 were projected at $2.3 billion, according to J.C. Edmond, spokesman for the National Candle Association, a trade group for the candle industry.

Of the candles made in the United States, about 95 percent are produced by companies belonging to the candle association, which doesn't use lead wicks, Edmond said. But imported candles and those made by smaller companies or individuals may not keep to that standard.

``You could start tomorrow if you want to buy some wax and wicks and dye and start making them in your garage,'' he said. ``And that's where we start running into some questions about who is using what.''

Edmond said that while the vast majority of American candles are safe, the candle association would support an official ban on lead-wick candles.

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 24, 2000