Lead.....Paint Chips and Pencils...

trees wood pencils - a pencil, made of trees, wood, LEAD? GRAPHITE?
@mzz663 (2772)
United States
September 20, 2007 10:36pm CST
Can chewing on pencils be as damaging to someone as chewing on paint chips? are lead pencils actually with lead? I thought they were made of graphite, but then why are they called lead? are there poisonus levels of lead in a pencil?
2 responses
dbhattji
@dbhattji (2506)
• India
9 Oct 07
yes, lead pencils do contain lead so if someone is inthe habit of chewing on them regularly they can get lead intoxication.
mzz663
@mzz663 (2772)
• United States
17 Dec 07
Ok, I'm giving you best answer here....just because you made me laugh pretty good! Lead pencils have graphite in 'em, not really lead and intoxication? were you chewing on a pencil when you answered this one?
twrenvstr
@twrenvstr (1)
• United States
2 Apr 09
I chewed a lot of pencils in the 50s and 60s. Who knows if the paint had lead and how much? I'm tired of all the brilliant people talking about the graphite in the middle. By the way, original pencils were lead, but not for the last teo hundred years.
riyasam
@riyasam (16556)
• India
11 Apr 09
thr pencils are usually made of graphite now,which is non-toxic but the art pencils do containsome amount of lead.As long as he's not eating an entire lead it would be harmless.Neither the clay nor the graphite in it will react with his body, though. They'll just come out the other end.