A 430-page environmental bill the DFL trifecta passed into law two years ago contained a provision that is set to effectively ban every key made or sold in Minnesota come July 1.
The new law would make Minnesota the strictest state in the nation when it comes to regulating the amount of lead and cadmium allowed in a number of products covered by the new statute. That’s according to lobbyists representing automobile manufacturers and key manufacturers who testified on the topic at the Minnesota Capitol last month.
The new law prohibits a person or business from importing, manufacturing or selling products that contain certain amounts of lead and cadmium. This means artists in Minnesota will no longer be able to purchase cadmium paint, and car keys containing lead will be banned on July 1.
But a handful of lawmakers in the state House and Senate are working to provide a carveout for those items before that effective date comes to pass.
The bipartisan group of legislators are sponsoring a pair of bills in both chambers that would amend a new statute that bans the sale or manufacturing of certain consumer products containing more than 0.009 percent lead or 0.0075 percent cadmium.
The proposed amendments would exempt current standard keys and cadmium paint or pastels from the list included in the statute, which was included in an omnibus environment bill that Gov. Tim Walz signed into law in May 2023.
Rep. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, is the chief author of a bill, HF1620, in the House that would exempt keys from the new statute that bans them. His co-sponsors include two Democrats—Reps. Dan Wolgamott, of St. Cloud, and Leon Lillie, of Maplewood—who both voted for the 2023 legislation that included the provision.
While the bill hasn’t yet received a hearing in the House or Senate, it is backed by the Minnesota Retailers Association, two prominent key manufacturers and an association representing the plurality of the nation’s leading automobile manufacturers.
A similar bill that would carve out an exemption for keys as well as paints that contain cadmium was heard in a House committee last month. The bill received bipartisan support in the House Commerce Committee during a March 5 hearing. The exemptions for keys and paints are also included in the Senate’s version of an omnibus commerce bill.
‘Exposure risk to these items appears to be minimal’
“Banning lead and cadmium in keys when there are no alternatives available in sufficient quantifies should not be a high priority, since exposure risks for these items appears to be minimal,” said John Fisher, a senior director for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Automotive Innovation, during testimony last month in the House Commerce Committee.
“With regard to electronic fobs, the lead in the fobs is in the interior electrical components that are not easily accessible,” Fisher added.
The Minnesota Retailers Association, which represents more than 1,500 members across the state, said that nearly every key in use across the country is made from brass, which contains a small amount of lead.
“That’s because brass offers the perfect mix of strength, durability, and machinability,” the association said. “The lead in brass is what makes it possible to cut a key to fit your lock precisely. Without it, you risk broken keys, jammed locks, or worse—locks that just don’t work. And when keys and locks are made of different materials, one will likely damage the other over time. It’s not just a manufacturing issue—it’s a functional one.”
MPCA and automobile industry present competing narratives
But officials with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency appear to be holding firm in opposing the proposal that would exempt keys and paints.
“The Department of Health had done a study, for example, where only 20 percent of vehicle keys have lead in it, compared to other types of keys,” Kirk Kourelka, assistant commissioner for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, told legislators. “There is an alternative. There are businesses doing the act, making keys with not having the risk of having lead in it.”
But Fisher countered that the European Union and the state of California have studied the issue and allow for lead-based soldering in the interior of keys.
“So the standards in California and the E.U. are still strict standards, and the challenge is Minnesota’s standard is much higher than those,” Fisher added. “So our keys are out of compliance here in Minnesota when they’re not out of compliance anywhere else, frankly, in the world.”
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
