January 22, 2023

Dear KitchenAid (& Parent Company Whirlpool),

You’ve known about and have been denying the presence of Lead in your stand mixer attachments since Tamara Rubin (Lead Safe Mama, LLC/ LeadSafeMama.com) first brought this to the public’s (& your) attention nearly ten years ago (in 2014). You are also aware that the cords on your stand mixers test positive for either high levels of Antimony (a known carcinogen) or high levels of Lead (a potent neurotoxicant) which do not belong in our kitchens. Additionally, you are aware that the brightly-colored enamel coatings on your stand mixers can test positive for high levels of Lead, if manufactured before a certain date.
 
Your stand mixers are in kitchens throughout the world. You are a trusted brand. You have intentionally designed these products to be “heirloom-quality”; you are aware they are in use in families for generations. KitchenAid stand mixers are not your typical modern appliance — designed for planned obsolescence. You price these stand mixers accordingly. They are gifted for significant milestone occasions — weddings; anniversaries; graduations; house-warmings; etc. As a result, consumers expect them to be safe for use with their families for generations.
 
The levels of Lead found in both your newly-manufactured and vintage heirloom products are not considered to be illegal — current regulatory standards only limit total Lead content in newly-manufactured "items specifically and intentionally designed for use by children”. Kitchenware - including, but not limited to appliances - is not considered to be a category of items "intended for use by children”. The total Lead content (as detectable with an XRF instrument) found in both your vintage and modern products - and specifically your food-contact mixer attachments (burnished, bare metal and coated)- is at levels that would be considered illegal today if your products were made for use by children.
 
Lead levels of 90 ppm in the paint or coating, or 100 ppm in the substrate (base metal) of any item is considered illegal in items intended for use by children. Your stand mixer attachments typically test positive for Lead in the range of 300 ppm - 2000 ppm (and higher) in the substrate. The substrate on the bare metal attachments is always exposed. The substrate on the coated attachments becomes exposed with wear and use (under normal circumstances) when the mixer is used as intended. 
 
While your legal team may argue that your stand mixer and attachment products are not intended for use by children, your marketing department (and customer base) clearly has a different understanding. In practice, not only are your products used by children every day, they are used by generations of children within the same family; mothers, grandmothers, aunts,(and fathers, grandfathers, uncles) — all look forward to creating memories using your mixers with the children in their lives.
 
Your marketing campaigns throughout the decades have helped to craft and reinforce the ubiquitous American family tradition of children using your KitchenAid stand mixer with their elders — especially for baking around holidays and special occasions. What child doesn’t remember licking the beater paddle clean after making cookies with grandma?!
 
Continue reading below the KitchenAid promotional image
captured from their Instagram profile in December of 2022 

You cannot claim ignorance of  the fact that children the world over use your KitchenAid stand mixers (& Lead-contaminated attachments) every day.
 
As all Federal [and International] agencies agree that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for a child, we, your customers, demand the following:

1. You cease using Lead-contaminated Aluminum substrates in all of your food-contact mixer attachments.
2. You manufacture and offer free replacement attachments for anyone requesting them —100% free of Lead in both the substates and coatings. Since you already are manufacturing several Lead-free options - making them available as an "upgrade" in Stainless Steel, it seems that it should be (relatively) simple for you to extend the same manufacturing standards to all of your attachments.
3. You issue a formal and public recall for all "burnished metal” and uncoated aluminum attachments for all models now and in the past and for all attachments for which the plastic (/nylon) coating has chipped or deteriorated in any way.
4. You offer free replacement of Lead-contaminated electrical cords for your stand mixers (and you note and publish what year you stopped using Lead in your electrical cords). With this you also issue a public statement that thorough hand washing should be employed (before preparing food and after touching the older Lead-contaminated or newer Antimony-contaminated power cords.)
5. You issue a public statement warning consumers that the trend of sanding and repainting the enamel bodies of these stand mixers is dangerous because of the historic levels of Lead in your vintage enamels (and with that, you publish what year you stopped using Lead in your enamels.)
6. Separate from the KitchenAid stand mixer considerations, you issue a formal public recall for your highly Lead-contaminated banana yellow silicone spatula (link) and any other Lead-contaminated silicone baking products (or other Lead-contaminated products) you may have manufactured that one could reasonably expect a family to use with their children in preparing meals.

Absent taking these measures, we pledge to cease buying all products from KitchenAid and your parent company, Whirlpool. We further pledge to cease buying products from distributors / vendors that also have track records (current and past) of selling Lead-contaminated products and that currently sell your Lead-contaminated stand mixer attachments; these vendors include Sur La Table, Williams Sonoma, and Crate and Barrel.
 
We know you can do better for our families.
We trusted you.
We want to be able to trust you again.
Signed,

Your name here! 
[Please personalize this letter as you see fit - including sharing a personal story if you have one.]