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King County (WA) hazardous waste program

puget sound county hazardous waste program. store-shelf surveys for cookware, dishes, cosmetics, spices, jewelry, and toys. 2,197 measurements covering 1,580 products from 668 brands and 61 countries, 2019 to 2025.

2,197measurements
1,580unique products
668brands
61countries of origin
12categories
2019–2025year span
visit official source → ← back to lead database hub

what this source covers

king county, washington runs the puget sound region's hazardous waste program. one part of that program is going into ethnic markets, dollar stores, and import shops around seattle and lab-testing things off the shelf, cookware, dishes, cosmetics, spices, jewelry, and toys.

this slice contributes 2,197 measurements covering 1,580 unique products from 668 brands and 61 countries of origin, sampled from 2019 through 2025. lead-only, they don't test the other three metals.

the highest reading from king county is a hand-painted ceramic bowl from mexico at 800,000,000 ppb (80% lead by mass). the kind of thing that would never get caught by a recall system because it's sold one bowl at a time at a small import store.

king county is the smaller, west-coast cousin of NYC NPSD: same shop-and-test methodology, different region, narrower metal panel. together they are the only two places in the US doing systematic store-shelf surveys of consumer products for lead.

categories this source contributed to

King County contributed measurements to 12 of the 13 categories in the lead database. each card links to the full sortable table for that category, where you can filter by source = "King County" to see only these rows.

cookware 967 measurements (48.8%) →
aluminum pots, ceramic-coated pans, painted dishes, glassware. mostly imported, mostly via store-shelf surveys.
 cosmetics 382 measurements (19.3%) →
kohl, surma, sindoor, lipstick, eye shadow. some traditional cosmetics test as nearly pure lead compounds.
 spices 215 measurements (10.9%) →
turmeric, cumin, paprika, chili, and other ground spices. lead chromate adulteration is the canonical story here.
 jewelry 174 measurements (8.8%) →
fashion jewelry, costume metal, kids charm bracelets. some items are nearly pure lead.
 toys 173 measurements (8.7%) →
painted toys, jewelry kits, plastic figurines. CPSC recalls plus EU safety-gate alerts.
 supplements 21 measurements (1.1%) →
vitamins, herbal supplements, ayurvedic remedies. lead contamination from soil and processing.
 food (other) 20 measurements (1.0%) →
rice, cereals, candies, sauces. anything edible that is not baby food or spice.
 candy 19 measurements (1.0%) →
mostly imported candies tested by NYC. tamarind candies and chili-based sweets dominate.
 religious & ceremonial 4 measurements (0.2%) →
sindoor, kumkum, holy powders, religious medals. used in worship, often imported, often very high in lead.
 paint 3 measurements (0.2%) →
house paint, art paint, industrial coatings. pure earth global surveys lead the count.
 baby food 1 measurements (0.1%) →
jarred and pouched baby food, infant cereals, formula. dominated by california AB 899 disclosures.
 electronics 1 measurements (0.1%) →
cables, chargers, holiday lights. mostly EU safety-gate alerts on solder and PVC.

methodology & license

metals tested: lead.

units: normalized to ppb (parts per billion by mass), identical to µg/kg. 1,000 ppb = 1 ppm = 1 mg/kg = 0.0001%. recall records (where the original notice did not publish a concentration) are flagged in the table as "recall record" rather than a number.

license: public records (king county). when you reuse rows from this source, attribute the original source. the unified database itself is published under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

official source: https://data.kingcounty.gov/Health-Wellness/Lead-Content-of-Consumer-Products-tested-in-King-C/i6sy-ckp7

back to the hub

the lead database hub stitches together King County with eight other open-license sources for a unified, searchable view of consumer-product heavy-metal data. nine sources, thirteen categories, 67,497 measurements, all normalized to the same units.

where the data comes from

nine open-license datasets, stitched together. each row in the table above links to the original source.

units & methodology

every concentration is normalized to ppb (parts per billion), which is identical to µg/kg. 1 ppm = 1,000 ppb = 1 mg/kg. 10,000,000 ppb = 1% by mass. methodology and limits of detection vary per source. always click through to the original record before quoting a number.

limitations to keep in mind

1. categorization is keyword-based. some borderline products may sit in the wrong bucket.
2. there is no cross-source dedup. the same product may show up in NYC NPSD and king county and pure earth as three separate rows.
3. about 11% of rows are recall records (CPSC, FDA) that don't carry a ppb value. those show as "recall record" in the data column.
4. some values are extreme, up to 1,000,000,000 ppb (= 100% by mass). these are real measurements of solid-state lead in religious amulets, kohl powder, or jewelry charms. not edible.

download the raw data

download unified_v3.csv (67,497 rows · 12 MB)

license: CC-BY-SA 4.0. use this data for anything. attribute as "detectlead.com Lead Database" with a link back to this page, plus the original source for any row you cite. derivative works must use the same license.

other categories

baby food (1,002)spices (2,085)cookware (2,340)cosmetics (1,542)supplements (840)toys (1,372)food (other) (420)electronics (753)paint (500)jewelry (369)candy (297)religious & ceremonial (122)vapes (41)

questions, corrections, or want to add a source? email eric@fluorospect.com or call 631-461-1838.

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