Pencils don’t have lead in them. What we call the lead is actually a piece of graphite. Graphite is carbon. There is no lead in pencils.

Having said all of that that there is an opportunity for a pencil marketer to advertise a “100% graphite pencil.” It could claim accurately “now entirely lead free.”

We visited the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick, England in July and I had the germ of this idea but it was the recent scare about lead in toys that made me think again about marketing “100% Lead Free Pencils.”

The novelty product of course would be wood pencils with absolutely nothing inside them.  But regular pencils could rightfully make the claim and get the pencil business of the worrying class.