Question from Lisa
Dear Debra,
I was recently reading to avoid brass fixtures in water hoses due to lead leaching from them. The advice said to instead look for nickel plated hardware.
This got me thinking about how most of the door knobs in my home are brass…would there be any concern for trace amounts of lead getting on your hands from using brass door knobs?
Thanks so much.
Debra’s Answer
I’m going to make an educated guess here and say no, I don’t think there is any lead in your doorknobs. BUT, I suggest you call a brass doorknob manufacturer and ask them what type of brass they use.
“Brass” is any alloy of copper and zinc. The proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties and other metals can be added as well (for more on how brass is made, see How Products Are Made: Brass).
There are many types of brass and only one contains lead. Here is a list of types of brass so you can see the wide variation:
Typical uses for leaded brass include:
(not doorknobs)
Apparently you can get quite an exposure to lead from using brass car and house keys.
