The Society of Glass & Ceramic Decorators (SGCD) has adopted new lip and rim leaching limits for cadmium at its January Board of Directors meeting. In the meantime, the organization also applied pending tighter lead lip and rim leaching standards to glassware. The newly adopted SGCD leaching limit for cadmium from the lip and rim areas of both glass and ceramicware is 0.4/ppm, while the tightened limit for lead is 4.0/ppm. The new lip and rim leaching standares will take effect for ware decorated after 31 March 1999. The current standard in place is 25/ppm for lead and 1.75/ppm for cadmium. SGCD applied the new standards to glassware, as the FDA has not yet acted to ban the use of lead and cadmium in the glassware lip and rim area which it has been considering since May 1997.
