# There's rust on my tea kettle. How unhealthy is this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827 "2010-03-18T00:56:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/21 "2010-03-18T19:24:37Z")
> [@](#): > > This raises the question…If one is iron deficient would eating (and/or drinking) from rusty cookware be beneficial? What if one took to eating exclusively from rusty cookware, could they skip the iron supplements altogether? Yes, using iron or steel cookware is often recommended to people with low iron levels. ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/22 "2010-03-19T07:50:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yes, using iron or steel cookware is often recommended to people with low iron levels. I’ve heard of recommending iron cookware (cast iron skillets particularly) but never heard of steel being recommended. I thought it was the iron leeching from the skillet itself as opposed to rust that was beneficial. One doctor from my childhood specifically recommended liver cooked in a cast iron skillet. But of course it makes sense when you think about what rust is (duh). This is good to know as I do truly hate iron supplements. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/23 "2010-03-19T12:26:00Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I’ve never heard of that. That’s really fascinating. Is it from the local plumbing (as in, the pipes of the house) or is it basically like that for the entire local community? I don’t know, it just seems like the sort of thing someone would complain about to the local utility companies or something. 😛 My current residence has a well. The water comes up naturally high in minerals (I keep joking we should slap a label in French on it and sell the stuff) and yes, our sinks and toilets and such accumulate orange/red stains from all the iron in it. I filter our cooking and drinking water, mainly for reasons of taste. The well is tested at least once a year and the water is fine, it just has a lot of dissolved minerals in it. Complain about it? Well, I suppose I could talk to God, but it usually doesn’t have much effect. It’s nothing unusual for natural water supplies to have minerals like iron in them. Some communities will filter them out, but unless you have a metabolic disorder such as the previously mentioned hemachromatosis it’s not harmful. Just, um, colorful and in some ways annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/24 "2010-03-19T13:02:25Z")
I happen to know more than I really want to about hereditary hemochromatosis, so I’m going to use this weak excuse to inflict my knowledge on everyone else. The human body doesn’t have any way to selectively excrete iron from the blood. We lose quite a bit in our poop, which contains a lot of old dead red blood cells, and women of course lose a lot during menstruation, but our iron levels are controlled entirely at the level of uptake. That is, our bodies can choose to absorb iron from our food or not depending on the levels of iron in our blood. The main protein involved in sensing iron levels in our blood and communicating that information to the proteins that uptake iron is called HFE. It’s a transmembrane protein, meaning that one end sticks out into our bloodstream and the other end is inside the cell (we’re talking about the cells that line our gut here). The part that sticks out binds other proteins that, in turn, bind to free iron floating around. When it binds these proteins, it sends a signal to the cell that says, “Hey, we’ve got iron!”. Each cell has lots of HFE, so the amount of signal is proportional to the amount of iron in the blood, and the uptake proteins adjust accordingly. In hereditary hemochromatosis, the HFE protein functions just fine, but there’s a mutation (actually there are two, possibly three) that’s located at the spot where HFE binds a small polypeptide known as beta-2 microglobulin. This is a little protein that acts sort of like a postage stamp - if you bind B2M, that’s a signal that you’re supposed to get moved out to the cell surface. The mutant proteins aren’t able to get out to the surface very well, which means they’re not able to do their job, and the overall signal level drops in the cell. This essentially means that your gut cell proteins are constantly taking up iron, trying to make up for this perceived loss. This, in turn, means that your iron levels build up to a level that can damage organs and tissues over several decades. Boom. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/25 "2010-03-20T21:15:24Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Really?! > > Quote: > Originally Posted by JoelUpchurch > When I was a kid, there was so much iron in the spring water that all the glasses were stained red. > Really?! > > Really?! Yes. There were iron ore deposits in the hills around our house. I remember roasting hot dogs on an outcropping by our house. My father claimed it could have been mined commercially if it had been closer to the Cumberland river. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/26 "2010-03-21T17:05:11Z")
> [@MitzeKatze](#): > > This **raises** the question… (bolding mine) Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/27 "2010-03-21T20:05:55Z")
> [@](#): > > I happen to know more than I really want to about hereditary hemochromatosis, so I’m going to use this weak excuse to inflict my knowledge on everyone else. I, for one, found that interesting, and did not know it before. Most of the research I’ve done on the condition focuses on the family genetics on the one hand, and on the diagnosis and treatment on the other, but I never looked too deeply into the underlying mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/28 "2010-03-21T22:48:01Z")
I used to work in a lab that tested for the causative mutations, and we had a presentation one day on the molecular biology that has always stayed with me for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![david\_lister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@david\_lister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/david_lister)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/29 "2012-05-29T15:57:00Z")
> [@Bayesian\_Empirimancer](#): > > I wasn’t joking. I probably should have explained better. For example, in the autosomal recessive disease Thalassemia, the blood is constantly being broken down; the only way to rectify this, other than bone marrow transplant, is to transfuse fresh red blood cells (RBC). The problem is, the RBC is still being broken down at a higher level than what is normal for an adult. If not transfused with RBC, the patient suffers from anemia and constant bone fractures. The side effect of the elevated levels of iron, sometimes enough that iron aggregates in the bloodstream. The body needs iron, but over the years of constant over-the-limit iron in the body, it will take its toll. Back before Desferal was invented for use as a iron chelator, blood transfusion was essentially a death sentence. But in normal adults, it’s very hard to achieve the levels needed to cause serious damage. That said, it is still possible. Please read this [link.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117155/) > > I am not a medical doctor, just someone with some colloquial knowledge. Beautifully written reply, BE. As to the response: Best not be calling people “noobs” (whatever that means), particuarly when one is not very well versed in the subject under discussion, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/30 "2012-05-30T11:50:42Z")
> [@Bayesian\_Empirimancer](#): > > I wasn’t joking. I probably should have explained better. For example, in the autosomal recessive disease Thalassemia, the blood is constantly being broken down; the only way to rectify this, other than bone marrow transplant, is to transfuse fresh red blood cells (RBC). The problem is, the RBC is still being broken down at a higher level than what is normal for an adult. If not transfused with RBC, the patient suffers from anemia and constant bone fractures. The side effect of the elevated levels of iron, sometimes enough that iron aggregates in the bloodstream. The body needs iron, but over the years of constant over-the-limit iron in the body, it will take its toll. Back before Desferal was invented for use as a iron chelator, blood transfusion was essentially a death sentence. But in normal adults, it’s very hard to achieve the levels needed to cause serious damage. That said, it is still possible. Please read this [link.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117155/) > > I am not a medical doctor, just someone with some colloquial knowledge. The reply you gave in your earlier post suggests nothing like this. You mentioned nothing about a disease, and implied that **in normal people** , an excess of iron will “electrocute” the organs, which, even as a metaphor, is patently ridiculous. Since cooking in a rusty pot isn’t going to cause excessive iron uptake in normal people (nor in most iron-related abnormalities, because rust isn’t bioavailable), much less boiling water in a slightly rusted kettle, there was no possibility that your answer would actually be responsive to the question. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/31 "2012-05-30T12:56:58Z")
zombie or no it’s not harmful, plenty of sensible statements above. ---
**Author:** ![nammy1958\_yahoo.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/45deac/32.png) [@nammy1958\_yahoo.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nammy1958_yahoo.com)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/32 "2012-11-12T12:46:04Z")
I have a kettle on the stove I use to boil water for tea, While cleaning it today, it was rusty on the bottom of the teapot. It was discusting. MIKASA, Garden Harvest AZ007 Whistling Kettle from Thailand. I did a search of the teapot but came up with nothing. please help as I am having horrible pain in my legs everyday, could this be hurting me. I had went to the dr. before this about the pain in my leg and he said i had arthritis in my knee but only a little bit. the pain is not just in my knee it is all over my legs. I drink a lot of tea but I do not put the teabags in the pot, just the water. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/33 "2012-11-12T14:20:40Z")
> [@nammy1958\_yahoo.com](#): > > I have a kettle on the stove I use to boil water for tea, While cleaning it today, it was rusty on the bottom of the teapot. It was discusting. MIKASA, Garden Harvest AZ007 Whistling Kettle from Thailand. I did a search of the teapot but came up with nothing. please help as I am having horrible pain in my legs everyday, could this be hurting me. I had went to the dr. before this about the pain in my leg and he said i had arthritis in my knee but only a little bit. the pain is not just in my knee it is all over my legs. I drink a lot of tea but I do not put the teabags in the pot, just the water. No, rust is not the cause of your pain. In fact, several leg-pain syndromes, including restless-leg syndrome and nocturnal cramps, can be caused by iron deficiency. As described above, our bodies are good at simply not absorbing excess iron we ingest. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/34 "2012-11-12T14:26:32Z")
Even though this one was started in General Questions, it’s now better in IMHO, where anyone’s opinion can be offered. **samclem** , moderator ---
**Author:** ![Sandra\_Battye](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sandra_battye/32/552_2.png) [@Sandra\_Battye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandra_Battye)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827/35 "2012-11-12T21:05:38Z")
Now that we’ve determined that rust isn’t harmful, it is destructive. I have an inherited cast iron kettle that has been used for display. I’d like to use it but it is uniformly covered with rust inside. How do I boil water in it without adding to the problem? I don’t want to put a hole in it. Do I just empty it when I’m done? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-rust-on-my-tea-kettle-how-unhealthy-is-this/532827.md?page=1)