Do Your Tiles Have Lead in Them? What You Need to Know

Traditional glazes have used lead for centuries - it's what gives handmade tile its depth of colour. That doesn't make it something to wave away. Here's the whole picture: why lead turns up in glaze, what our own safety data sheets actually say about our ranges, and when it genuinely matters.

Tiles of Ezra; Materials & Testing

If you've spent any time reading about zellige or other handmade glazed tile, you've probably seen the word “lead” attached to it somewhere - often in a comment thread, sometimes in a headline designed to alarm. We're not going to pretend that conversation doesn't exist, and we're not going to have it quietly. Some glazes contain lead. Some of ours do too. This page explains why, what it means in practice, and exactly what our testing shows for every colour we sell, including the ones with numbers on the higher end.

We'd rather you read this here than piece it together from a forum or a social post.

1. Why lead ends up in glaze at all

Glaze is glass. To turn powdered minerals into a glossy, durable surface, a kiln has to melt them, and some minerals melt at brutally high temperatures. Lead oxide has one job in traditional glaze chemistry: it acts as a flux, dragging the melting point down so the glaze matures at a lower, gentler heat. That gentler firing is exactly what lets handmade tile keep the slight unevenness, the pooling, the depth of colour that a mass-produced tile can't replicate. It's also what makes certain saturated colours - deep cobalt, rich chocolate, the near-black glazes - genuinely difficult to achieve without it.

This isn't a shortcut or a manufacturing defect. It's a technique going back thousands of years, still used deliberately by artisan kilns across the world, including many of the workshops that hand-glaze traditional Moroccan zellige. Lead in a glaze is a choice a maker makes for colour and character, not an accident, and not something hidden inside the tile by default.

2. Total content vs. what can actually leach out

This is the distinction that gets lost most often, so we want to be precise about it. There are two different things you can measure:

• Total lead content: how much lead is chemically present in the glaze material itself, measured as a percentage or in parts per million (ppm). This is the figure that appears on our Safety Data Sheets (SDS), prepared to Safe Work Australia's Code of Practice, and it's the number relevant to workplace handling - cutting, grinding, drilling.

• Leachable lead: how much lead can actually migrate out of a fired, vitrified glaze surface under real-world conditions, typically measured with an acid-soak test such as ASTM C738. This is the figure that matters for food-contact surfaces like mugs, plates, and benchtops.

A properly fired glaze locks lead into a stable glass matrix. Total content and leachable content are related, but they are not the same number, and a glaze can carry a measurable total lead content while releasing almost nothing under normal use. We publish total content - the more conservative, precautionary figure - because it's what our SDS documentation measures, and because giving you the cautious number is more honest than giving you the flattering one.

3. What our own testing actually shows

Every range we sell is independently documented with a Safety Data Sheet, and every SDS states lead content per colorway - not as a single blended figure for the whole range, but broken down colour by colour, because the amount of lead in a glaze changes with the pigment and depth of tone. This is different from a handheld XRF scan, which isn't an accredited or certified test method - there's no standardised protocol or chain of custody behind a single on-the-spot reading, which is why it works as a screening tool rather than something a regulator, insurer, or formal safety document relies on. Our figures are produced under Safe Work Australia's Code of Practice and classified against AS 4361.2, the same framework used for compliance documentation. We publish these results in full and will send you the SDS for any range on request. Here's a summary of where things sit across three of our current collections.

Range	What we found	Typical span	Status
Tierra	All ten colourways	<0.01% (<100 ppm)	Lead-free
Amano	All colourways, incl. Chocolate & Azul	<0.01% (<100 ppm)	Lead-free
Zellige	7 colourways (Chameleon, Clay, Dust, Latte, Olivia, Sal, Stratus)	<0.01% (<100 ppm)	Lead-free
Zellige	Mid-toned colourways (e.g. Chefchaouen, Cool Breeze, Moss, Teal)	0.04% – 0.10%	Moderate
Zellige	Deepest, most saturated colourways (e.g. Chocolate, Mustard, Kermit)	0.11% – 3.00%	Higher

Our lightest, most neutral Zellige tones test at true lead-free levels. Our darkest, richest tones - the colours getting their depth from that same traditional flux - carry more, up to 3.00% in our most saturated colourway. That's consistent with what's reported across the traditional zellige industry generally, where deeply pigmented, hand-fired glazes can test considerably higher again. We'd rather show you the full spread than pretend it's flat.

Have a read of the Lead levels for these ranges below

4. Our Testing is third party, not an XRF Scan

You may have seen handheld XRF scanners used online or in-store to “test” a tile on the spot, sometimes with a number reported back instantly as fact. It's worth knowing what that actually is, and what it isn't. Every figure we publish comes from an independent, accredited third-party laboratory - not from us, and not from a handheld device. Here's what that process actually involves, from sample to certificate:

A sample is taken across a batch, not a single point on a single tile.
It's sent to an independent, accredited laboratory, not tested in-house, and not read off a device.
The sample is dried and mixed thoroughly, then a measured portion is weighed out.
It's treated with strong acid and heated to 95°C for around three hours, with careful additions of hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid, to fully break the material down.
The resulting solution is analysed on an ICP-OES instrument, calibrated against certified reference standards.
The lab issues a documented, repeatable result - the same standard of report used for regulatory and workplace safety compliance.

That's a multi-hour laboratory process carried out by an independent lab, start to finish. It's a genuinely different thing from a handheld XRF reading taken in a few seconds - which is a useful screening tool, but isn't an accredited or certified test result, has no chain of custody, and can shift with calibration, glaze thickness, and surface texture. If you see a number reported from a quick on-the-spot scan, it isn't making the same claim as a number on one of our Safety Data Sheets, and the two shouldn't be read as equivalent.

All testing has been conducted by Amal Analytical - NATA Credited Since 1987

To categorise our colours we used the below groupings:

PPM range	Group
100–300 ppm	Lead Free
300–1,000 ppm	Moderately Elevated
1,000–5,000 ppm	Higher Lead Content
5,000–10,000 ppm	Very High Lead Content

5. When it's actually worth thinking about, and when it isn't

Lead content on a spec sheet and lead exposure in your home are two different questions. Here's how we'd separate them.

Generally not a concern:

Installed, intact glazed tile on floors, walls, or shower surrounds under normal daily use
Walking, showering, or general contact with an undamaged glaze surface
Any colourway from our lead-free ranges, in any application

What about skin contact? A common question is whether lead can pass into your body through bare feet or hands on a tiled floor. The lead in fired glaze is inorganic lead, and intact skin is a very effective barrier to it. Absorption through the skin is negligible, which is why health and safety frameworks focus on dust you might breathe in or swallow rather than surface contact. And as covered in Section 2, a properly fired glaze holds its lead in a stable glass matrix, so very little is available at the surface in the first place. Standing, walking barefoot or showering on intact glazed tile isn't a meaningful exposure route.

Worth being deliberate about:

Cutting, grinding or drilling. This creates fine dust you can breathe in or swallow, and it's the main real-world exposure route. Installation is the moment to manage it.
Food-contact surfaces, such as benchtops and tiles that food will sit on directly.
Worn, chipped or cracked glaze. Years of heavy foot traffic can slowly abrade a glaze into fine dust, and damage can expose the tile body. This matters most in homes with young children who crawl and put their hands in their mouths, since that's ingestion rather than skin contact. In those areas, a lead-free colourway removes the question entirely.
Harsh acidic cleaners. Vinegar, descalers and acid-based tile cleaners can etch glaze over time and increase what can be released from the surface. A pH-neutral cleaner avoids this, and it's what we recommend for zellige regardless.

For the cutting and drilling scenario specifically: this applies to every glazed tile on the market, lead content aside, because our SDS documents also flag crystalline silica dust as a serious inhalation hazard under WHS regulations. Wet-cutting, HEPA extraction, and a properly fitted P2 respirator aren't a lead-specific precaution, they're standard practice for any trade cutting glazed or natural stone tile, and we include this guidance with every SDS we send out.

6. How we handle it, in practice

We don't think “trust us” is good enough on a topic like this, so here's what we actually do:

• Every range is independently lab tested, and results are documented per colorway on a formal Safety Data Sheet - not a marketing summary. That's a different process from a handheld XRF reading taken on the spot. An XRF gun gives an instant surface-level snapshot of one point on one tile, and what it reads back depends on calibration, glaze thickness, surface texture, and operator technique - useful as a quick screening tool, but not an accredited result. Our figures come from proper sample preparation and multiple readings taken across batches, analysed under controlled, repeatable lab conditions. That's why a real result takes time to produce, not seconds - and why we don't rely on a single scan to tell you what's in a glaze.

• We publish the numbers that don't flatter us alongside the ones that do, we are not going to shy away from showcasing that information. Honest Information is something we always pride ourselves in.

• We maintain a dedicated lead-free shopping section, so if a project involves a benchtop, a food-prep splashback, or you'd simply rather build with lead-free colorways throughout, you can shop that requirement directly instead of cross-checking every product page.

Shop lead free here

A note on where these numbers come from: The figures above are total lead content, prepared under Safe Work Australia's Code of Practice for Safety Data Sheets and classified against AS 4361.2 - the standard used for workplace handling and transport classification. They are not a food-contact leach test. If a project specifically requires leach-tested, food-contact certification (for example, a benchtop or servingware application), tell us the use case and we'll point you to the right documentation or the right product for it.

7. The short version

Lead has a real, technical reason for showing up in traditional glaze, and it isn't automatically dangerous, vitrified into a glass surface, in a floor or wall application, intact and undisturbed, it's simply not doing much. It becomes worth managing when tile is cut or damaged, or when it's going somewhere food will sit on it directly. We'd rather hand you the actual numbers, the actual standard they're measured against, and a clearly signposted lead-free option than let you find out any of this from somewhere else.

Lead in a fired glaze is locked into the glass and isn't absorbed through the skin, so walking barefoot on installed tile isn't an exposure route. The points worth managing are dust during cutting, worn glaze in high-traffic areas where young children play, and choosing pH-neutral cleaners.

Building somewhere lead-free matters?

Shop our dedicated lead-free collection, or have a read of the Lead levels for these ranges below

Standards & references

Safe Work Australia — Code of Practice: Preparation of Safety Data Sheets. AS 4361.2:2017 (lead classification, workplace). ASTM C738 (lead & cadmium extraction, food-contact glazed ceramics). Tiles of Ezra Safety Data Sheets - Zellige, Tierra & Amano ranges, current editions.

Lead in Tile Glaze: What It Is, Why It's There, and What We Test For