OLYMPIA, Wash. — A new law will make Washington the first in the nation to limit the amount of lead content in metal cookware that is made or sold in the state.
House Bill 1551, signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on March 28, follows years of research by a small band of King County scientists and the Afghan Health Initiative into the cause of high levels of lead in the blood of Afghan immigrants.
Their research ballooned into an investigation that revealed that much of the imported aluminum cookware that is commonly sold on websites, like Amazon and Etsy, contains other metals that include toxic lead.
“This gives Washington the authority to regulate cookware made and sold to Washingtonians to ensure it does not contribute to lead exposure,” Inslee said as he scrawled his name to HB 1551.
The law comes after the King County Hazardous Waste Management Program found brick-and-mortar and online retailers were slow to respond to its warnings about the lead laden cookware.
In May of last year, the KING 5 Investigators purchased three traditional Afghan pressure cookers from Amazon and Etsy. That was nearly a year after King County researchers first warned that the cookers – manufactured and marketing in Afghanistan as an aluminum product – had high amounts of lead in some of the metals using in the forging process.
Lab testing showed the cookers KING 5 purchased were made with as much as 34,000 parts per million lead, which can leach into food while cooking.
The new law restricts lead content in cookware to five parts per million. Meaning, the cookers KING 5 purchased had as much as 6,800 times the amount of lead that will be allowable when the law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2026.
“That’s a lot of lead. Ideally, cookware contains zero amount of lead,” said Dr. Katie Fellows, a researcher with Hazardous Waste Management Program.
Amazon and Esty removed all Afghan pressure cookers for sale on their sites soon after the KING 5 Investigators 2023 story.
“We’re facing evidence of an epidemic level of lead amongst immigrant families, “ said HB 1551’s prime legislative sponsor, Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-Seattle). “You’re cooking for hours and hours in lead and that lead is just being infused into your food,” Pollet said of the toxic cookware. Pollet is a clinical instructor on public and environmental health at the University of Washington.
To see the harmful effects of lead poisoning you only need to look as far as the Afghan community in south King County.
“In our lead program specifically, we work with about 400 children per year,” said Ariana Anjaz, senior director of the Afghan Health Initiative, which is headquartered in Kent.
When immigrant children arrive in the United States, the public health department takes blood sample to test for illnesses. Health officials realized that Afghan children had lead blood levels that far exceeded any other population. They worked with the Afghan Health Initiative for years to investigative why and identified the pressure cookers and other traditional Afghan cookware as the source.
Anjaz said one child was so desperate for nutrients that were robbed by the lead in his blood that he “had this affinity and this craving for eating dirt.” Doctors determined that his behavioral and developmental problems could all be attributed to the lead content in his bloodstream.
South King County merchants selling the cookers did not remove them from the shelves when warned, and that’s why the new law is so necessary, said Anjaz.
“It’s a huge win. It means so much for the Afghan Health Initiative, so much for the community,” she said.
HB 1551 fines makers and sellers of cookware that contains more than five parts per million lead $5,000 on a first offense and $10,000 on subsequent violations. The law stipulates a violation only occurs if merchants “knowingly” sell cookware that contains lead. Because some may argue that they don’t know the metal contents of their cookware, the Washington State Department of Ecology will conduct routine testing on cookware sold in Washington to search for violations.
Just as with the Afghan pressure cookers, merchants have been slow to remove imported aluminum cookware that is forged with lead. In September, KING 5 purchased several pieces of cookware from Amazon and Etsy. All except for one product contained lead.
It appears merchants or websites have removed most of the items identified in KING 5’s story.
However, an Alpine Cuisine 3.5-quart aluminum stockpot is still on Amazon. The same model tested 95 times the allowable amount of lead when the new law takes effect in 2026.
The importer did not respond to KING 5’s recent email but has previously said it was investigating the source of the lead with its Chinese manufacturer.
Amazon responded to questions about the new law by sending the same statement that it issued to KING 5 in 2023. “We require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws,” spokesperson Tim Gill wrote. “We monitor the products in our store for safety concerns, and when appropriate, removed products…or take other actions.”