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I have a tube of Gamblin's Flake White Replacement. It isn't. It is funny stuff. It handles a bit like Permalba. It is much whiter than Flake white, it is glossier than Flake White, and it doesn't handle really at all like Flake White. It is basically Titanium and Zinc white.
Back to lead white. Realize that for centuries, lead whites have been the choice for painting grounds and undertones and lead white was and often still is the most permanent and stable white you can use. The overwhelming majority of paintings from 1100 to 1930 have a lead white ground under them. Lead white is extremely stable over time. It is very UV resistant. And, as long as you don't eat it, or smoke around it, or breath it in as a powder, almost anyone with two brain cells to rub together can handle it safely.
The restrictions against lead paint in this country come because of commercial lead house paints that children eat off of the baseboards and get sick from. Few tykes however, nibble on old master works, or for that matter, our paintings today. Further, our lead paint comes already mulled and tubed for us - no powdered lead carbonate to catch the breeze. The Federal scare tactics are unjust in regards to lead paint and fine art. Should lead have been removed from house paints - Yes, IMO. But their broad brush policy covered our works too and (in typical American fashion) I think that is overkill.
As an amendment, all that said, it is the artists choice as to whether they use lead whites or not. There are certainly enough viable alternatives out there today that if you don't even want to deal with the possibility (remote though they are) of complications with lead whites you don't have to.
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