Heavy Metals in Packagings - Check Analyses 1998

2. Procedure

2.1 Purchase
2.2 Analyses

2.1 Purchase

The packagings were purchased in the western part of Copenhagen on 23 November 1998 by Birgitte Kjær, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, and Ivan Christensen, Danish Technological Institute, Aarhus.

Project 349 from 1997 revealed a high content of lead in soldered tins. Therefore, an attempt was made to buy soldered tins. However, it proved difficult to find tin packagings with soldered joints. Inquiries at building markets (Bauhaus and Silvan), dealers in car cleaning agents, paint dealers and various hobby shops all proved negative. An explanation was also given. "It is too expensive to make anything else but tins with rolled joints".

As to this type of tins, project 349 did not show high content of heavy metals.

The purchase of tin packagings ended up with one tin of alkyd lacquer which, from a visual point of view, could be soldered, as well as two tubes of hobby colours.

Project 349 showed wine bottles with a high content of lead. To assess the lead content of the wine bottles on the market in 1998, 47 packagings in the form of wine bottles at a price of DKK 25-60 were purchased.

Two wines were bottled in Denmark whereas the rest of the wines were imported on bottles. Wine bottles imported from Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, California, Chile, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Germany and Hungary were purchased.

Rumania was not represented, but two bottles from this country were acquired later.

Place of purchase, country of origin and mark of the 52 samples appear from enclosures I and II.

2.2 Analyses

The analyses for the content of the heavy metals chromium, lead, cadmium and mercury were carried out as described in project 349. The wine bottles were crushed. After crushing of the glass, a pellet was pressed of the glass powder and analysed by X-ray technique (Philips PW2400/UNIQUANT, ver. 4.14).

After the tin had been cut up, it was analysed at the joint. The X-ray analysis showed a high content of lead, and therefore, an atomic absorption spectrometry analysis was also performed after solution in a hydrochloric acid/nitric acid mixture. The result was converted to a content based on the entire tin packaging.

The tubes were cut up and analysed directly by X-ray technique (the main component was aluminium).