Committee hears competing health and industry views on lead-in-cookware bill

The Environment & Energy Committee heard a staff briefing and more than two hours of testimony on Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5628, a proposal to change Washington’s recent law limiting lead in cookware. Committee staff outlined the bill’s key changes, proponents urged strong limits to protect children, and manufacturers and retailers warned the current drafting could force some producers out of the state.

The bill would amend last year’s cookware restriction (House Bill 1551) by raising the maximum allowable total lead limit from 5 parts per million to 10 parts per million, explicitly include utensils and griddles, and exclude certain large appliances and inaccessible components. It also directs the Department of Ecology to issue guidance to manufacturers and others subject to the law.

Supporters told the committee that contaminated cookware is a preventable source of harmful lead exposure, especially to children, and that a total-content standard is clear and enforceable. Industry representatives and some retailers said the bill’s scope and testing approach need more work to avoid unintended economic consequences for Washington manufacturers and sellers.

Jacob Lipson, committee staff, summarized the bill and the 2024 law’s background, saying the earlier law “established a maximum allowable limit of lead of 5 parts per million” and that Ecology “has the authority to lower that 5 part per million threshold” through future rulemaking. He told members the engrossed substitute to be discussed would raise the allowable limit to 10 parts per million and adjust the statute’s scope.

Senator Sharon Harris, the bill’s prime sponsor, told the committee: “This bill is certainly not ready” and said she had “some concerns still with the bill,” noting the issue affects many manufacturers. Harris said she would prefer clearer testing and, if necessary, a short delay to “figure out how we can do this in a systematic way that everyone can be happy,” and added, “The test I would look at is how much is actually leaching in, what is being transmitted into our food, not the content of lead that’s actually in the apparatus.”

Public-health witnesses including Dr. Katie Fellows of the King County hazardous-waste program urged the committee to keep a total-lead limit and to rely on available testing. Fellows said independent certified testing showed “lead in cookware under 10 parts per million is easily achievable” and warned that a leachate-only approach would fail to reveal lead hidden beneath coatings that can wear away.

Nick Federici of Toxic Free Future told the committee the policy aims to protect children’s developing brains and said testing “can and has been done that demonstrates that it is not that difficult to reach [the] lead limit.” Heather Trim of Zero Waste Washington and other proponents emphasized that coatings can mask lead in base metal and then wear away, increasing exposure risk.

Industry witnesses said the statute’s scope and testing methods require clarification. Dean Tryon of Woodstone, a Bellingham-based manufacturer, said the company’s products are tested to NSF standards and that as drafted “we would not be able to manufacture products” in Washington. Representatives of appliance and cookware trade groups — including Charlie Brown (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers), Jacob Cassidy (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers), and Kevin Messner (Groupe SEB/Cookware Sustainability Alliance) — said some common stainless-steel and clad cookware could be affected and urged a certification process or recognition of existing third-party standards.

Department of Ecology staff member Kimberly Getz told the committee Ecology has received implementation questions after the 2024 law and that “certain key elements of the original legislation did lack clarity,” including the statute’s definition of cookware (which as written could be read to include refrigerators). Getz explained that ecology’s historic consumer-product testing methods measure total lead content by grinding and analyzing material; in contrast, some cookware-testing approaches use a leachate method. She said ecology is currently unable to perform leachate testing and that establishing and validating a new lab protocol would likely take months.

Several witnesses discussed testing methods and limits. Getz described two commonly discussed approaches: an XRF screening device (which ecology said has a ±30% uncertainty) to estimate content, and a laboratory mass-spectrometry method that requires destructive sampling and formal validation. Industry witnesses and Ecology staff suggested a certification pathway and mutual recognition of accredited third-party standards could help identify compliant products without excluding manufacturers that meet accepted benchmarks.

Refugee Peer Northwest executive director Reza Pedram described community outreach in King County after local testing identified cookware with “hundreds to thousands of parts per million of lead,” and described a cookware-exchange program that removed lead-containing pots and pans from more than 100 families. Pedram signed in “in support of the bill” to protect children and families.

No committee action or vote on ESSB 5628 was taken at the hearing; the measure was subject to further stakeholder work. The committee was told Ecology will continue to engage on testing protocols and that sponsors expect additional drafting to address manufacturers’ concerns before any committee vote.

Supporters urged the committee to preserve a strict, total-lead standard and to adopt clear, affordable testing; industry and utilities asked for a practicable path for existing, third-party-certified products to remain on sale while removing highly contaminated imports. Committee members and witnesses repeatedly noted the need to reconcile protectiveness for children with clarity and feasibility for manufacturers and retailers.

The committee will receive additional materials and testing data submitted by proponents and industry, and members signaled they expect further drafting or a possible postponement to allow more stakeholder negotiation.