 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Robert Barnard
Date: 1999-08-06 06:39
A question came up during a master class I was attending concerning crystal mouthpieces and the possibility of the crystal containing lead, thus producing a health hazard. I know crystal can be produced without lead, but I do not know what is used to produce crystal mouthpieces. If anyone has any information on this it will be greatly appreciated.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 1999-08-06 19:28
I very much doubt that any lead could be extracted from a glass mouthpiece by means of saliva [even tho it is very slightly basic in pH]. People [including myself] have played on the high quality crystal mp's for years and I have never heard of such an occurence. A similar situation might be presented by the use of expensive {Waterford et al} lead-glass decanters for wines and liquors [long-time storage] and again, no problems known. As Shakespeare may have said, "Much ado about not very much" . Don
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Author: Fred McKenzie
Date: 1999-08-07 15:39
Robert Barnard wrote:
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A question came up during a master class I was attending concerning crystal mouthpieces and the possibility of the crystal containing lead, thus producing a health hazard.
Robert-
I read somewhere that lead in glass could be a problem if a liquid was stored in it for a long period. If so, this might be extended to a mouthpiece because of the cumulative time it would be in contact with your saliva over many years of use - assuming it did contain lead. I don't think all crystal is "lead" crystal.
But, are you sure it is really made of glass? I understood that most were actually made of a clear, hard epoxy-like resin.
Fred
<A HREF="http://www.dreamnetstudios.com/music/mmb/index.htm">MMB</A>
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 1999-08-07 20:51
This is true, Fred, particularly in the case of decorative wine or liquor bottles made from "lead-glass" as the best are. We only fill ours on the occasion to be safe. Lead-glass is beautiful due to its high index of refraction as compared to the usual soda-lime glass. I dont know [others please inform us]what the mp glass is in its composition. The other major glass type contains boron, which also wouldn't be good to be ingested. Nuff said? Don
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Author: Robert Barnard
Date: 1999-08-08 07:09
Although it is not healthy to injest lead, it is apparently only toxic to children under about ten. Of course, all of this talk is moot if the materials used to produce crystal mouthpieces contains no lead. I just don't know what is used to produce crystal mouthpieces. Can anyone enlighten me?
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