Last month, officials from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) met with Maryann McDermott of the National Candle Association (NCA) to discuss the issue of lead in candles. In addition, the NCA president and two manufacturing representatives attended the meeting via conference call.

Margaret Neily of CPSC's Engineering Sciences Division led the meeting and billed it as an opportunity for the commission to work with the NCA on the "lead in candle controversy." However, the meeting turned out to be only a fact finding mission by CPSC as officials there begin their own research into lead and candles.

CPSC staffers are currently looking for candles on the market with lead wicks. Lori Saltzman of CPSC's Health Sciences Division said they were going to stores in various parts of the country and randomly picking candles off the shelves. She could not say how many candles would ultimately be tested.

There are about 130 candle companies that are NCA members. They represent about 80 percent of U.S. sales of domestically-produced candles. According to the NCA, U.S. candle manufacturers have a long tradition of making high-quality, long-lasting and safe candles. Most U.S. candle manufacturers voluntarily agreed to stop using lead and lead alloy wicks in 1974 in a pact with the CPSC. The majority of wicks manufactured today in the U.S. are made of cotton. Those wicks with metal cores used by U.S. manufacturers are typically zinc-core wicks and pose no known health risk when burned properly.

Jeb Pierce, president of Atkins & Piece, one of the largest U.S. wick manufacturers, told meeting attendees that despite the voluntary agreement his company only stopped producing lead wicks in 1998.

"Our company actually petitioned to have lead banned in wicks officially in the late 1970s, early '80s," Pierce said. "After that, our company started making them again and then phased lead wicks out early in 1992. Last year we stopped altogether. ...We only had about 1 percent of the lead wick market."

Lead Wick Buyers

Ralph Scott of the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning asked Pierce if he knew who bought the lead core wicks, but Neily said the question could not be answered at a CPSC forum.

At the last ASTM meeting on candles, it was announced that German manufacturer, Henschke Arik, no longer makes lead core wicks. CPSC's Neily said there was no good information on the Asian market for lead wick production.

Pierce added that lead core wicks are "definitely used in the Far East but we have no handle on where the candle makers are from that use this product."

CPSC must follow-up on this candle issue because they currently have policy guidance on the use of lead in consumer products. McDermott asked CPSC officials to provide a venue to make another agreement to ban lead from wicks. Neily, however, said the venue should involve CPSC, ASTM and NCA.

An ASTM standard would be voluntary, but everyone would need to comply, Neily told meeting attendees. McDermott agreed, stating that there would be "a lot more clout if ASTM came up with a standard as opposed to another ban from NCA."

Why is lead used in candle wicks? Some attendees said that pricing is not really the issue. Pierce commented that lead is often easier to work with and a lead core wick has a burning quality that's desirable.

"Lead turns the wick and curls it," Pierce said. "It's been used for hundreds of years in the wick-making process so it will be hard to stop it."

Neily stated that ASTM would be holding a meeting in May on standards for labeling and sooting of candles. Jim Hubble of CPSC is currently working with NCA and ASTM to put together these standards.