Cobalt on Trial

Cobalt oxide and cobalt carbonate are ceramic raw materials widely used by potters. They are frequently found in glaze and slip formulas contributing, under varied circumstances, a light to dark blue color depending on the amount employed. Cobalt has traditionally been used as a decorative blue colorant in everything from Chinese porcelain to American salt glazed stoneware. However, its use today reflects a wider problem potters face when employing any ceramic raw material. The dilemma is not with the specific raw material but with the lack of pertinent health statistics relating to the effects of ceramic raw materials on potters. The available statistics are based on industrial populations of workers whose exposure and duration rates are significantly different from potters working in craft centers, schools, and private studios. In the wider economic world large industries have the incentive and money to assemble and document health problems associated with the workplace. There have been numerous statistical records in commercial areas such as mining, paper production, and metal industries as to the effects of raw materials on workers. From the data obtained many procedures have been enacted for the safe handling of raw materials. There is also an economic incentive for industry to protect its workers to prevent potential litigation. This is not the case with the population of individual potters who have no economic resources for such health related documentation. A central question that has not been addressed is: can an accurate extrapolation of industrial statistics be applied to potters who have lower exposure and duration rates?

Based on the lack of health and safety statistics as they relate to the small population of potters can it be possible that ceramic raw materials will become the next “asbestos type” material for potential litigation? Society in general has become more litigious, a description for taking legal action over a real or imagined injury to a person or damage to property. It is not surprising that this mania has inevitably come to the field of ceramics. It is present even in lawsuits generated from customers scalding themselves from a hot cup of coffee. The economic reactions to lawsuits, or even the possibility of lawsuits, can have a negative effect on ceramics suppliers and eventually on potters who purchase ceramics equipment, supplies, and raw materials. Ceramics is a small industry.