#Cadmium: Vintage 1940s Nancy Ann Storybook Doll, Princess/ Bride

Introduction (for those new to this website):

Tamara Rubin is a federal-award-winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children, her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005. Since 2009 Tamara has been using XRF testing (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. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023.

This vintage (1940s) Nancy Ann Storybook doll (princess? bride?) has a painted face that is 975 +/- 35  ppm cadmium. Her hair was also positive for cadmium at 893 +/- 34 ppm. The amount of cadmium that is considered toxic/unsafe in an item made for children today is 40 ppm and higher. Read more about cadmium here. She was (surprisingly!) negative for Lead.

Click here to see more Nancy Ann Storybook dolls.

In general, you should keep vintage dolls (both plastic and ceramic) away from young children as they almost always have unsafe levels of lead and cadmium (and sometimes also have arsenic and mercury).

This doll was tested with an XRF instrument. All components were tested. The exact year of this item is unknown as it is not marked, although my mother had these very same dolls from her childhood and she was born in 1942.

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