For those new to this website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-Federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead-poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005). Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific method used by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic). All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Items are tested multiple times to confirm the test results for each component tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).
Originally Posted: January 29, 2017
Updated: March 30, 2023 — Thursday
Readers and friends often ask if they can “chip in” to support the childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work that the Lead Safe Mama, LLC team leads — either just to say, “Thank You,” to offer support big or small toward a specific project, the legal defense of this advocacy work, or just to help in general.
The work we do here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC has always been a collaborative effort with our readers (who help direct what we test and write about, as well as help cover the cost of testing and other fees related to this advocacy). In this respect, we are truly a team and your contributions are always welcome!
We created this page to help make it easy for readers and friends to “chip in” when they have the ability to do so. There is a PayPal button below — but contributions can also be made via GoFundMe, Zelle, or Venmo. Zelle and Venmo are preferred. All contributions (via any of these methods) are reported as business income to Lead Safe Mama, LLC on our taxes each year.*
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Zelle: 503-702-2708
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Venmo: @TamaraERubin (four confirm digits: 3182)
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GoFundMe Link
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PayPal: TamaraRubin@mac.com
*Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not affiliated with any nonprofit, and your contributions here will therefore not be tax-deductible — just very much appreciated! Click the “Pay Now” button below to make a contribution in any amount via PayPal or using a credit card.
If you prefer to send a check you can do that too — address below!
Checks should be made out to Lead Safe Mama, LLC
Tamara, what do you need to raise money for right now?
Updated: March 30, 2023 — Thursday
#1) Ongoing Lead Safe Mama, LLC Operating Costs
Monthly goal to help with operating costs (in support of the testing we report on and other information we share here on this website) for Lead Safe Mama, LLC: about $10,000.00 a month (minimum) — Including:
- Website Hosting Fees, Phones & Internet (ongoing): about $750/month
- Website Maintenance, Security & Development (ongoing): approximately $400/month
- Mailing List Fees (e-mail list/ongoing): about $200/month
- Bookkeeping/Accounting costs (ongoing): about $300/month
- Toxic Product Storage (ongoing — for the book and museum exhibit): about $350/month
- Product Example Purchasing/Acquisition (intermittent — purchasing items for testing & reporting on the website database): $300 to $500/month (depending on funds available)
- Postage/Shipping (ongoing): $300 to $500/month
- Testing Supplies & Equipment (ongoing): varies, around $2,000 to $7,000/month
- Lead Safe Mama vehicle costs (including gas, tolls, insurance, etc.): about $1,500 a month (+)
- Project Assistance (we currently have THREE women working for us part-time … two mamas and a recent college grad!): about $3,000 a month
- Legal costs: $3,000 to $10,000 a month
#2) Lead Safe Mama Special Project Expenses (Goals/Wishes/Dreams!)
- A Travel Van, Truck (Knapheide Service Body), or Bus: After an incredibly successful summer (in 2020) driving cross country, visiting with families of Lead-poisoned children who we had worked with over the years and helping new families along the way — we cemented our belief that we need to keep this show “on the road” as much as possible. We would like to buy a Lead Safe Mama travel van so we can spend five to six months a year driving across the United States helping families protect their kids from exposure to Lead (in-person)!
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- Estimated cost for this vehicle: $60,000 to $110,000 depending on the configuration.
- We are hoping to find a corporate sponsor to donate these funds or a friend of this work to lend the funds to purchase this vehicle (to be paid back out of corporate sponsorships and earned income).
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- 10-Minute Tamara Video Series: We invested about $10,000 in Lead Safe Mama income into a prototype video series of interviews with parents of Lead-poisoned children around the world! There are interviews with families in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States so far. We would like to find a production partner to expand this concept into a television series where we visit with and help families of Lead-poisoned children. You can see the prototype videos here, including a three-part interview with Jon Fishman, drummer of the band Phish — who is also a parent of a Lead-poisoned child: LINK.
- I Make Women Cry & Throw Out Their S#!% — a book: Years ago we did a Kickstarter for a book on Lead in consumer goods. We even made a prototype of the book. We have since collected all of the items to be featured in the book and we have tested those items and published the test results here on the website. All that is left to do to complete the book is the final photography, layout, and printing. Costs to date have been more than three times what was raised in the Kickstarter, so we are looking for a partner to help us complete the book (including photography, layout, and printing.) The book is not designed to pay for itself (or be a money-maker) — it was designed to be an advocacy tool for parents of Lead-poisoned children.
Thank you for the amazing work you do! Before I stumbled on your Facebook page I had no idea lead was still a concern in products in the US. The knowledge you share opened my eyes and has helped me make much better decisions on what items are safe for us in our home. Much love to you and appreciation for all the sacrifices you are making to do this noble work.
Thank you so much for your support of my advocacy!
Tamara, your work is so important. Society and Mommas everywhere (who choose to listen) owe you a great deal for continuing the conversations about the little thought of lead hazards still present today. As a former vintage goods enthusiast, You’ve helped guide me towards better purchasing decisions and have no doubt saved my Daughter from lead exposure hazards that I otherwise would not have known about. Thank you for continuing to educate despite the hell that you receive for it. You are leaving a legacy my friend. Never doubt that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Tamara! I’m so grateful people like you exist. <3
Thank you!
Blessings.
Is there a recall on all this Tupperware?
Hi Joan,
Usually companies do not issue a recall on 40 year old product, but that would be amazing if they did the right thing and announced something along those lines!
Tamara
I deeply appreciate what you are doing and what you are going through.
A holiday gift! Thanks for the education!
Thank you so much Heather!!!!
– Tamara
How, exactly, do I find lead-free dishes? How do ai dispose of my beautiful Portmeirion dishes? (Thank you!)
Thankful for your work. You have opened my eyes.
I appreciate your transparency of your budget. It gives us a way to budget our contributions & ads.
Bless you, your family, and your work. I love narrated photos of your cross country trip.
Do you have an Amazon Smile account?
Thanks!
Just added to the fundraiser. Thanks so much for all you do! You have no idea how many times I am led to you when searching if a particular company claims to be lead free — I have recently pretended I was ordering from California (using a California address until the last minute) just to see if Prop 65 pops up. And so often I check back with your site. So wish I could contribute more – but it’s a hard time of year, too!
Wishing you and your family a very happy holiday season and a new year filled with Good Health and Happiness.
Diane L NYC
Thank you so very much Diane! I truly appreciate it. Support from my readers during these complicated times helps me to see the other side of all of this – the light at the end of the tunnel… 🙂
Tamara
Could this 1996 paper be the last ever to document research into lead deficiency in animals?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01610551 Untersuchungen zur Knochenmarksmorphologie und zu verschiedenen Hämolysemarkern bei wachsenden Ratten im alimentären Bleimangel
That paper still uses the term “Bleimangels” (lead deficiency) but seems to contain a statement against the idea that there are benefits from that, for instance the powerful anti-oxidant, glutathione peroxidase, is reported as being more active in the animals that were “deprived” of lead. At the same time it suggests there is damage to blood cells in animals deprived of lead.
Trying to find more recent papers since 1996 does not appear to yield results while finding older papers is possible. Five years earlier in 1991 this paper includes statements about pigs’ growth being stunted if they are deprived of lead.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0396.1991.tb00283.x Untersuchungen zur Essentialität von Blei an post partum abgesetzten Ferkeln “Bereits ab dem 5. Versuchstag zeigten die an Blei depletierten Ferkel im Vergleich zu Kontrolltieren ein vermindertes Wachstum. Am Versuchsende betrug die Wachstumsdifferenz 15%.” (As early as the 5th day of the experiment, the lead-depleted piglets showed reduced growth compared to control animals. At the end of the experiment, the growth difference was 15%.)
Further back in time in the 1980s there were many more papers about “lead deficiency” in animals. American nutritionist Lucille Shapson Hurley (a Guggenheim Fellow) was the author of the 1988 book Trace Elements in Man and Animals. That book contains this statement: “Lead deficiency induces disturbances in lipid metabolism…”
Oh Wow! That’s odd. And interesting. Dr. Mark Pokras (veterinary medicine, Tufts) might have some info on that for you – I will connect you via e-mail. I have a story about that too… (Lead “deficiency”) I will follow up here with that when I have a not-exhausted moment!
As always, thanks for your contribution to this website and the movement!
Tamara
Thanks, Tamara. If you reach out to anyone the thing I want to know the most is if the LIA and/or ILZRO funded research that falsely demonstrated lead was an essential nutrient.
A 1973 memo from Philip E. Robinson, Executive Vice President of the ILZRO, “Minutes – ILZRO/MDA Joint World Committee” states that “Dr. [Jerome] Cole [president of ILZRO] hoped that Dr. Schwarz’s report to the EPA showing that lead was an essential trace element for the growth of laboratory animals might help the metal’s image…”.
https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/2Nbaw3yEjK931XbVBjj2qQ3JR?lightbox=1
That statement demonstrates that the LIA and the ILZRO clearly knew there was research and approved of it. I’m still looking for any indication that M. Kirchgessner (“M KirchgeĂźner”) and A.M. Reichlmayr-Lais were being funded by those organizations to publish more papers like it.