Stainless Steel... How safe is it ??

EitherOr said:

I'm curious about the SS questions myself, perhaps its own thread is warranted. I know of consumers moving away from SS cookware and water bottles because of the chance of leaching. Particularly those with a Nickel allergy/sensitivity.

The concept is the same as this Brass discussion, that under the 'right' conditions, any material can be harmful. Despite the prevalent use of SS lets not overlook that it too has some potentially harmful components, such as Chromium and Nickel.

A quick 'google' turned up this report, and under specific conditions SS did apparently leach elements into the water.

http://www.mysiggg.com/LeachingMetals.pdf

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Purple-Days said:

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Ginni there is a difference between Stainless Steel alloys and a Leaded Brass alloy. Chromium is part of the atomic crystal structure and is tightly bound by atomic force (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_bond_theory) to the other elements around it, where Lead is not. Brass is Tin and Copper and these two elements when combined form a very exact cubic crystal structure. Adding Lead to this cubic latticework places Lead atoms inside these cubic structure, but the Lead is not atomically bound to the other two elements. It's just mixed in like dirt in water. (The water is still water, just dirty.) Abrasion exposes free Lead at the surface. Fresh abrasion exposes more free Lead atoms. There is a very big difference.

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DevoTheStrange said:

Purple-Days said:

Welcome to the forum Ginni.

Stainless steel is an industry standard in the commercial food preperation industry. Also for brewing and milk processing etc. You are probably using a stainless steel spoon to eat your Wheaties. When you go for bloodwork they insert stainless steel into you, it is used in many surgical proceedures and even implants.

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Stainless Steel is an issue for those who have nickel allergies.... it is something I am familiar with in my work, reactions to stainless steel, have seen quite a few in my day, quite a scary reaction to encounter. However you need to have a nickel allergy for SS to be bad for you. When you do have this allergy, you cannot touch any form of steel with any nickel in it.
You can also develop an allergy to the nickel from repeated blood exposure to SS (So if you get stuck with a needle alot, or receive many surgeries, it is possible to develop an allergic reaction to cumulative exposure, however there has to be contact with the blood stream to develop a cumulative allergy)

Only reason I know this is I stick people with surgical steel on a daily basis, I had to learn all about it. It is an almost immediate reaction. I think its only a problem for 1-2% of people. I am more worried about encountering latex allergies than I am SS allergies.

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