Ignorance about toxicity and suitability of timber

[Frankenwood]

Aye Paul, you'd be right there. Not really sure that I'd consider lead paint to be a suitable wood finish mind...... And, forgive me if I'm wrong, I think Lead paint hasn't been legal for a while............ perhaps I should qualify my statement. ' All suitable and appropriate wood finishes are considered safe........'

[Les Symonds]

....... perhaps I should qualify my statement. ' All suitable and appropriate wood finishes are considered safe........'

....that's too biased a get-out-clause! It effectively says that as long as it's safe, then it's safe, and that's a very dangerous path to follow for the average woodturner. Surely, a finish is only safe to use with food if the proper research has been undertaken and the product has been given food-safe status as a result. This makes it suitable and safe (to use your term). So I'll stick to the safeguard of using the manufacturers Product Data Sheet to let me know what I can and cannot use with food implements.
Les

[Frankenwood]

Yes Les I agree. And thank you for your reply.  But if the great and good FDA say that they are good - I'll try and find the actual report and post it - then maybe that's food for thought? ( if you can forgive the utterly unintended pun).

I also used my biased reply because it just seems a bit much to think that someone might use lead based paint as a food safe finish, and the report does actually stipulate but I haven't got the report in front of me. I do, however, take the point - someone most likely would😔

[bodrighywood]

If by the FDA you are referring to the american food and drug authorities . I wouldn't pay too miuch credence to the report and would use common sense instead.

pete

[Frankenwood]

Yes Pete, the American Food and Drug Administration, and why wouldn't you pay much credence to it? Of course their report is backed up by many experts in the field too....

And totally agree common sense should always apply. I would say that there's no definitive advice out there for newbies regarding foodsafe finishes and even in clubs and on blogs and in magazines there's a certain amount of doubt and conflicting advice.

Rest assured that I will always apply common sense when finishing my work😀

[bodrighywood]

American standards are often quite different to ours here and there have been cases where things that are supposedly OK by FDA rules aren't up tp standard here.This applies a lot to such things as fertilisers, insecticides etc but is enough for me to be wary of using american standards as something to assess suitability for. If you look on the labels of different finishes, oils etc it will usualy state if it is food safe. Oils that are used in the kitchen such as rape, sesame, corn etc are obviously safe as is olive oil though that can go rancid in time. Ypou can buy specific 'food safe' finishes for wood workers as well. Other finishes such as wax polishes, lacquers etc should be treated with care and unless stated as food safe buy the manufacturers not assumed to be so. In todays litigious society it is far better to be safe than sorry. Using walnut oil for example can be a problem for people with a nut allergy despite what some people try and tell you.

Pete

[Frankenwood]

Agreed. But in the absence of any other authoritative opinion where would you look - common sense and peer reviews aside? Because it seems that we have a lot of folk who have used 'this' or 'that' but nothing really official.....and if you wouldn't trust the FDA would you really trust the manufacturer?

It is a can of worms, I'll grant you. And common sense should prevail, and peer reviews relied upon, but.........

And, as I've done quite a bit of research online and by word of mouth, it seems nobody agrees with each other and they aren't prepared to put their cards on the table and say this is safe or that is safe, except the FDA. For what that's worth.

As Les says probably best to use the manufacturers data sheet. And common sense😀

[APH]

if you wouldn't trust the FDA would you really trust the manufacturer?

Yes, if it's an EU supplier and their products comply with the correct regulations. If you tried selling a product as 'food safe' and it wasn't you'd risk a mighty big fine.

As an example have a look at the safety data sheet associated with Chestnut food safe finish. https://chestnutproducts.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Food-Safe-Finish.pdf you can research the relevant quoted standards if you're interested.

[bodrighywood]

Bottom line if you go by the FD or any other foreign standards and something happens you are in serious trouble. If you adhere to EU (at the moment) regs then you are pretty safe.

Pete