I have been mocked and reviled on several boards because of my concern about lead and other base metals in cast iron pots used for melting and alloying soft metals. Scrap lead and wheelweights are known to contain cadmium, copper, arsenic, zinc, selenium and other toxic base metals often in the form of oxides and some salts of these metals.
I would like to know, for sure, from someone who actually can prove it one way or the other if these metals insinuate themselves into the iron, and if so, can they be removed thoroughly enough to be food safe.
Not "I'm sure", "Stands to reason", or "I reckon". I'd like to KNOW. Until I do, I won't cook in or knowingly eat out of any iron that I do not know the provenance of.
I'm 65 and 260 lbs, so it would take quite a lot more of something nasty to do me dirt, but how much would it take to make a 30 lb., six year old girl deathly sick? Who among us is willing to risk that cute little granddaughter he thinks the world of?
Scaredy cat ol'
Three Hawks