# Xmas Tree with lead
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 21, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262 "2007-11-21T00:17:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/1 "2007-11-21T00:17:18Z")
So my dad replaced our old artificial tree, considering it was what, ten years old or so?
And he brought home one from Loews. He and sis are putting it together, when they find a warning on the side of the box.
> [@](#):
>
> Warning: this product contains chemicals, including lead, known to the state of CA to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.
> **Wash hands after handling**
What the FUCK? Considering all the hoopla about toys in China containing lead, you’d think this would be pulled from the shelves. My father’s going to take it back tomorrow, and he’s thinking of contacting consumer services.
Legally, can anything be done?
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/2 "2007-11-21T00:23:07Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
. . .And he brought home one from Loews. He and sis are putting it together, when they find a warning on the side of the box. . . .
Legally, can anything be done?
[/QUOTE]
Well, if you had gone to Lowe’s, instead of Loews, you could have gotten a refund from them. I don’t think they even make you give them a particular reason, although that might be a good idea.
```
Tris
```
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/3 "2007-11-21T00:29:15Z")
D’oh!
:smack:
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### Author:  [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/4 "2007-11-21T00:36:31Z")
Yes shame on you. You made a spelling mistake. Since i don’t know the answer to your question i am just going to point out your spelling mistake so i can still fell like i accomplished something by coming into this thread.
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### Author:  [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/5 "2007-11-21T00:45:17Z")
It probably contains a leaded-solder joint or something. The CA Prop 65 warnings are so vague and so overused (if you visit California, you will see this notice just about everywhere you go) as to be utterly worthless for anything other than scaring people. Which was probably the actual point… so chalk up another point for the Luddites, I guess.
Don’t eat off it, don’t nibble on the branches, and I predict you’ll live a long and happy life of getting scared by more Luddite campaigns.
Or take it back, and buy another one that probably has the same stuff but in a not-for-sale-in-California package.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/6 "2007-11-21T00:53:09Z")
If it’s a pre-lit tree, the lead is undoubtedly in the light bulbs themselves and their wiring.
Don’t eat the lights and you’ll be fine. Prop 65 is just a tad over the top in its paranoia-inducing abilities.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/7 "2007-11-21T00:57:28Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords]
Prop 65 is just a tad over the top in its paranoia-inducing abilities.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it’s utterly worthless. I’ve been soldering with lead-based solder for nearly 30 years. I’ve held it in my bare hands and probably breathed in enough lead fumes to give a Prop 65 proponent a coronary. I’m still very much alive and cancer-free.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/8 "2007-11-21T01:01:28Z")
[QUOTE=Omphaloskeptic]
It probably contains a leaded-solder joint or something. The CA Prop 65 warnings are so vague and so overused (if you visit California, you will see this notice just about everywhere you go) as to be utterly worthless for anything other than scaring people. Which was probably the actual point… so chalk up another point for the Luddites, I guess.
Don’t eat off it, don’t nibble on the branches, and I predict you’ll live a long and happy life of getting scared by more Luddite campaigns.
Or take it back, and buy another one that probably has the same stuff but in a not-for-sale-in-California package.
[/QUOTE]
Perhaps, but I’ve got several cats and a dog-all of whom like to chew on the branches.
Maybe I’m over reacting-but the whole “wash your hands” and “birth defects” seemed a little disturbing.
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### Author:  [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/9 "2007-11-21T01:23:17Z")
They probably have lead weights in the base or something like that.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/10 "2007-11-21T06:46:42Z")
Me again…
I forgot to say earlier that Prop 65’s so far-reaching in what it considers harmful to humans that all bars and restaurants that sell alcoholic beverages are required to post Prop 65 warnings, and there are even specific warnings for fresh fruits and nuts.
Any law that micro-manages to the point of specifying the exact typeface used for signage has gone too far.
> [@the State of California](#):
>
> If signs 10 inches high by 10 inches wide are used, the word “warning” shall be centered three-quarters of an inch from the top of the sign in ITC Garamond bold condensed type face all in one-inch capital letters. Three-sixteenths of an inch from the base of the word “warning” shall be a line extending from left to right across the width of the sign one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness. Centered one-half inch below…
(From [http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/law/12601.html](http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/law/12601.html))
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### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/11 "2007-11-21T16:59:10Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
Perhaps, but I’ve got several cats and a dog-all of whom like to chew on the branches.
Maybe I’m over reacting-but the whole “wash your hands” and “birth defects” seemed a little disturbing.
[/QUOTE]
I have dealt with this question recently in my practice. If you look around the hardware store, many items have this California specific warning so that they can be sold in that goofy state. Your pets’ risk is from the foreign body end of things, _not_ from the heavy metal end.
Each holiday season I surgically remove gastric/intestinal foreign bodies from lots of pets (especially ribbon from cats). Happy Holidays!!! 😃
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/12 "2007-11-21T17:15:44Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
Perhaps, but I’ve got several cats and a dog-all of whom like to chew on the branches.
Maybe I’m over reacting-but the whole “wash your hands” and “birth defects” seemed a little disturbing.
[/QUOTE]
Are you planning to breed the cats or the dog? If not, and if no humans of reproductive age chew on your tree’s branches, I think you’re safe there.
The proposition system in California is pretty goofy. I think it’s mainly a way for various groups (of variable goofiness) to pass laws without having to go through the normal process of going through the legislature. And when you bypass the legislature and the debates on laws that go on there, and ask people who aren’t experts (and most of whom don’t even read the whole text of the proposed law), you get unintended consequences. Like the whole state being papered in Prop 65 notices… (I think almost everyone who has lived in California for more than a few weeks regards the Prop 65 notices as a joke, if they even notice them any more)
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/13 "2007-11-21T17:28:33Z")
You’ve made me feel a lot better-than and the store telling us that it’s mostly in the poles and the “supports”, if you will-NOT in the branches themselves.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/14 "2007-11-21T17:32:59Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
Legally, can anything be done?
[/QUOTE]
Legally? Do you want to sue them or something? Take your receipt and return it for fuck sake.
Prop 65 is a silly thing that is case in point for the Law of Unintended Consequences. Banks have to put up that notice because of one of the chemicals in the ink in currency. The verbiage about birth defects is standard and is on every one of those signs and stickers.
Like **Omphaloskeptic** said, if you return in for one without a sticker, you’ll just get one with the same exact composition that wasn’t intended for sale here. Your panic is ridiculous although it would be worth it to see the amused faces on the Lowe’s employees when your Dad acts all outraged and demands to see the manager over this. That would be funny. Isn’t he a funeral director? He must deal with way more “dangerous” chemicals every day of his life.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/15 "2007-11-21T17:37:10Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
Yeah, it’s utterly worthless. I’ve been soldering with lead-based solder for nearly 30 years. I’ve held it in my bare hands and probably breathed in enough lead fumes to give a Prop 65 proponent a coronary. I’m still very much alive and cancer-free.
[/QUOTE]
But if you were born 3 days earlier, you would be cancer ridden. Instead, you are merely Gemini-ridden.
Lead warnings are everywhere in CA. I’m sure you could find it on fishing tackle (“Warning: This lead contains lead.”)
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/16 "2007-11-21T17:46:56Z")
I remember shopping for Christmas lights last year. At some point I noticed that warning on some lights, tried to change them for some that didn’t have it and found it on every single brand and model of lights on the store. Bought them, installed them, washed my hands, forgot about it.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/17 "2007-11-21T17:52:13Z")
[QUOTE=hajario]
Legally? Do you want to sue them or something? Take your receipt and return it for fuck sake.
Prop 65 is a silly thing that is case in point for the Law of Unintended Consequences. Banks have to put up that notice because of one of the chemicals in the ink in currency. The verbiage about birth defects is standard and is on every one of those signs and stickers.
Like **Omphaloskeptic** said, if you return in for one without a sticker, you’ll just get one with the same exact composition that wasn’t intended for sale here. Your panic is ridiculous although it would be worth it to see the amused faces on the Lowe’s employees when your Dad acts all outraged and demands to see the manager over this. That would be funny. Isn’t he a funeral director? He must deal with way more “dangerous” chemicals every day of his life.
[/QUOTE]
Last time I checked, this was GQ, not the Pit. Jesus.
Legally, I meant, if it was THAT hazardous, why would it be on the shelves. And yes, my father handles 'dangerous chemicals every day of his life." Plenty of jobs do. He doesn’t bring them home, though, and use them to decorate the living room.
I am sorry I asked such a stupid question, but I didn’t know. I appreciate your answers. Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/18 "2007-11-21T17:57:53Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
Legally, I meant, if it was THAT hazardous, why would it be on the shelves..
[/QUOTE]
Because it isn’t. Ironically, similar lights without the CA Prop 65 warning crap on them could very well contain MORE lead than those with it. Undoubtedly, lightsets from 10-20 years ago did.
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### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/19 "2007-11-21T18:10:59Z")
Actually, the potential for lead toxicity in pets does really exist. Birds that roam free sometimes ingest curtain weights. I treated a macaw that ingested lead that the owner used for reloading ammunition. I treated a puppy that ingested lead in the form of fishing weights (split shot).
The California Proposition thing is a joke, however lead should not be ingested.
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xmas-tree-with-lead/427262/20 "2007-11-21T18:14:38Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
I am sorry I asked such a stupid question, but I didn’t know. I appreciate your answers. Thank you.
[/QUOTE]
The Prop 65 warnings freaked me out a little when I first moved to California and saw them, too. But pretty soon I saw them every-freakin-where, on things that wouldn’t have any kind of safety warning anywhere else.
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