To be an American is to fall in love with something that has the potential to kill you. Cigarettes, fast cars, men, lemonade — our country’s great history is peppered with love affairs and death. This week was no exception. Stanley Quenchers, the ultra-popular, beautifully soothing, indestructible water bottles that promise health, hydration, and ideal-temperature beverages, contain lead.

Is America’s newfound holy grail actually a poisoned chalice?

According to the company and experts, consumers should be relatively safe, provided that their Stanleys suffer no damage. That’s good news not just because lead exposure and poisoning is linked to some extremely nasty health conditions — heart disease, kidney disease, birth defects, etc. — but also because it seems like everyone knows someone who has a Stanley. These Quenchers are largely responsible for Stanley going from a reported $73 million in revenue in 2019 to $750 million in 2023.

But the immediate shock and scare of Stanleys’ risk to consumers might be obscuring a bigger, more concerning story about the real risks — and why a poisonous material is anywhere near our beautiful, expensive water bottles.

Yes, there’s lead in Stanley water bottles. Yes, you should return it if it’s damaged.

The initial discovery that Stanleys contain lead happened in March of last year. Tamara Rubin, a lead safety activist who runs the Lead Safe Mama website, tested a broken Stanley and found it positive for lead. Since Rubin’s discovery and in the thralls of the current Stanley consumer craze, Stanley owners have been testing their own bottles and posting results on social media, predominantly on TikTok.

Posting whether a Stanley leaches metal poison has become a trend within a trend online; some videos get hundreds of thousands of views. That makes complete sense. TikTok has become Stanley central, with influencers pushing big cups on their followers and Stanley collectors showing off their multiple Stanleys in varying colors. A potentially scary........

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