By Canaira Cage
Writer
You’ve probably seen Stanley cups in your classes or at work or even have one or two of your own. If you head into the lobby of Dickinson Hall, you’ll probably see multiple cups in various pastel colors. (For full disclosure: I have two myself.)
But do the students drinking out of their pretty $45 cups know that these cups are testing positive for lead?
Users on TikTok have tested cups for lead, and a large number of the tests have been positive. These TikTokers are not professional chemists or product testers, so take their findings with a grain of salt.
After searching the company website, Stanley does not address the accusations thrown its way. Social media has fueled this controversy.
Mya Ortiz, a freshman in business administration, owns one of these pricey cups. She is aware of the lead findings and isn’t happy about it. She bashed the company, saying the cups are “overpriced.” She even says she’d “rather use a Hydro Flask.”
Daniela Peschetti, a freshman health studies major, says, “I heard of the lead incident and was aware about the lead on the bottom.” It looks like she’s not bothered by the incessant postings on social media, since she’s drinking from her Stanley cup at The Bridge.
“There’s a lot of places where lead can be on a cup like that,”Jack Caravanos, a professor of public health at New York University, told The New York Times. “It could be on the inside, the outside, the labels, decals. And, I did not find lead — sort of superficial lead on the surface — in any part of the cup.”
So the cups are allegedly safe to drink from, but talk of lead makes some consumers uneasy.
Most of the conversation surrounding Stanley began with a video of a Maryland woman’s car bursting into flames and its aftermath: The ice in her Stanley remained frozen.
Some people say that the video is fake and a marketing stunt planned by the Stanley company, but there is no evidence to support these claims. It’s worth noting, however, that the woman is still milking the situation despite it happening in mid-November.
Stanley did, after all, replace her car.
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