Washington State previously enacted HB 1551, Cookware Containing Lead, adding a new chapter to Title 70A RCW. This law has now been amended by SB 5628. The amendment includes limiting the scope to only cookware and utensils made of aluminum or brass and raising limits that need to be met for lead.
The amendments to the law are as follows:
- Revision of definitions of components, cookware, and utensils, which now state items made of brass or aluminum.
- Components are listed as lids, rivets, fasteners, valves, and vent pipes.
- Cookware is listed as pots, pans, kettles, griddles, grills, internal pots for devices such as rice cookers or pressure cookers, and similar vessels or surfaces in or on which food is cooked.
- Utensils are listed as knives, forks, spoons, spatulas, and similar tools used for preparing, serving, or eating food, unless completely enclosed by stainless steel.
- The definition does not include items where only the internal layer is aluminum or brass and is completely enclosed by stainless steel; or the outside body of electronic cooking appliances with removable cooking containers, such as slow cookers, rice cookers, and pressure cookers.
- Revision of the lead limits and effective dates from a limit of no more than 5 ppm starting in January 2026 to:
- Covered aluminum or brass products or their components restricted from being manufactured, sold, offered for sale, or distributed for sale or use in Washington State if they contain lead or lead compounds higher than
- 90 parts per million as of January 1, 2026; and
- 10 parts per million as of January 1, 2028.
- Covered aluminum or brass products or their components restricted from being manufactured, sold, offered for sale, or distributed for sale or use in Washington State if they contain lead or lead compounds higher than
- Update to the date of consideration for a lower limit based on feasibility of the cookware and components achieving the limit and as necessary to protect human health. This will now take place after December 2030, four years earlier than the original law.
For more information, see link for full details:
Washington Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5628, An Act relating to lead in cookware; and amending RCW 70A.565.010 and 70A.565.020
https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2025-26/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Passed%20Legislature/5628-S.PL.pdf?q=20250514125005
BV Bulletin for details of the original law:
https://www.cps.bureauveritas.com/newsroom/washington-governor-signs-lead-cookware-bill
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