Updated; October 23, 2021
(Rates & Minimums Subject To Change)

Background

Tamara Rubin, an internationally-recognized expert on childhood Lead-poisoning and its prevention, has won numerous awards (including two from the federal government) for her pioneering work in raising awareness of household exposure to neurotoxic Lead (and other heavy metal toxicants) and safe work practices in remodeling and remediation – and is the only person ever to win the national “Healthy Homes Hero Award” (pictured above) — presented to her in 2011 by a consortium of federal agencies (HUD, USDA, USDoE, CDC & EPA) at the National Healthy Homes Conference in Denver, for her ground-breaking consumer advocacy in raising awareness about the dangers of residential Lead exposure.

Tamara became an advocate and activist for Lead poisoning prevention after her children were acutely poisoned at their home in Portland, Oregon in August of 2005. In early 2012 she gave up a career as a successful consultant (computer consulting and nonprofit advising) and database designer to do Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention advocacy full time.

Since December of 2016 she began working under the name “Lead Safe Mama” as an independent advocate and consumer goods watchdog, with a focus on consumer goods testing and reporting the results of this testing here on the #LeadSafeMama blog, incorporating officially as “Lead Safe Mama, LLC” just over a year later – in January of 2018.

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Career / Timeline Highlights

• 1990/1991: Tamara graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (after studying in both New York and Paris.) 
• 2005: Tamara’s children were acutely Lead-poisoned during a home repainting. This was the beginning of a complete shift from her work as a consultant (working with nonprofits, medical offices and small businesses) to that of a full time advocate and activist for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention.
• 2007: Tamara’s family’s Lead poisoning story first appeared in print this year (on the cover of USA Today). She also began doing speaking engagements this year, with her first one serving as the opening speaker for the Western States Lead Poisoning Prevention Conference (hosted by the EPA in Seattle, WA).
• 2008: Tamara’s story  was featured on the Today Show for a piece to raise awareness about the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Renovation Repair and Painting Rule (EPA RRP Rule.)
  • She was an invited guest presenter (invited by the CDC) at the National Healthy Homes Conference (in Baltimore, Maryland.)
  • She began serving as a volunteer advisor / committee member for State & Federal legislative initiatives related to the Federal implementation of the EPA RRP Rule,)
  • In response to the Google Prize initiative, Tamara started her first Lead poisoning prevention website (MyChildrenHaveLeadPoisoning.com).
  • She gave birth to her fourth son, Charlie.
• 2011: Tamara’s work (with the nonprofit she founded earlier that year) won the National Healthy Homes Hero Award (presented U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and others at the National Healthy Homes conference in Denver.) Additionally this year, filming began on the documentary feature film that she directed and produced (MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic.) In 2011 Tamara also won the “Mom on a Mission” award from the nonprofit Healthy Child, Healthy World (later to become a program of the Environmental Working Group.)
• 2014: Tamara’s leadership won the nonprofit she founded the “Best Overall Communications Campaign” award at the National Healthy Homes conference in Nashville (presented HUD and others) – particularly notable as the organization was a small grassroots effort and the competition for the award was well funded programs with  prominent hospitals, universities and other public health programs.
• 2016: Tamara was recognized as one of the key whistleblowers in the Portland Public Schools (PPS) Lead-in-water legal case, for her work exposing the PPS administration’s knowledge and active participation in allowing children to drink Lead-contaminated water from school fountains without taking any action to remediate the Lead hazards (nor alerting the parents of this concern).
• 2017: Tamara’s work finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys went viral and was later followed up on by USPIRG and covered by CBS This Morning in November of 2017 (link).
• 2019: With her discovery and reporting of Lead (and Cadmium, Arsenic, and Mercury) in vintage Tupperware products in March of 2019, nearly 1,000,000 unique individuals from all over the globe visited the blog in a single month.
• 2020: The total number of unique visitors to the Lead Safe Mama blog (per Google Analytics) exceeded 1.1 million people for the second year in a row – with these individuals coming from more than 200 countries (link) – see image below & click here to see some more of the fun stats.

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Some News Coverage & Interviews

• August 30, 2019 – New Idea Food, Australia
• August 28, 2019 – Truthout (USA)
• August 25, 2019 – Yahoo Style U.K.
• August 23, 2019 – The Sun (U.K.)
• August 16, 2019 – 7 News Australia
• August 1, 2019 – Better Homes & Gardens, Australia
• July 25, 2019 – New Idea Food, Australia
• July 23, 2019 – Vice (USA)

Home with my disabled children full-time (and mostly working nights) since the pandemic – public outreach in 2020 / 2021 has focused on podcast interviews (vs. press interviews.) You can see several of the recent podcast interviews on this link.

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Writing

The TamaraRubin.com / LeadSafeMama.com website has more than 3,150 posts and pages with information and resources specifically on the subject of Lead, childhood Lead poisoning prevention, Lead in schools, Lead-safe work practices in renovation, Lead in consumer goods (consumer goods test results), and more.

Over the past 15+ years, Tamara’s writings have been published and quoted widely and the #LeadSafeMama website (which features extensive database of consumer and household goods she has tested) serves as a trusted source – a virtual encyclopedia – on these topics, which together with Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s social media channels (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), newsletters and blog, have earned her a large (and loyal!) Internet following.

Public and Private Speaking Engagements

Since her first speaking engagement at the Western States Lead Poisoning Prevention Conference in Seattle in 2007, Tamara has partnered with dozens of public health agencies and other businesses and organizations on collaborative outreach events for childhood Lead-poisoning prevention awareness. This has included headlining (as a keynote speaker) at professional conferences; she is also a popular speaker and presenter at events hosted by medical schools and universities, fortune 500 corporations, and civic groups throughout the U.S.

Speaking engagement highlights range from presenting alongside presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan and serving as an opening speaker for renowned environmental activist Erin Brockovich. Her popular “lunch and learn” enterprise speaking engagements have included collaborative events at the Corporate Headquarters of Nike, Seventh Generation, and SC Johnson Wax. To read more about Tamara’s speaking engagements and collaborative outreach events, click here.

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One-on-One Home Consultations
& Testing Parties

Tamara visits families and communities at home – where they live, educating people about common environmental sources of Lead exposure – particularly those lurking in plain sight in our homes – and childhood Lead-poisoning prevention. Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s “Healthy Home Consultations” are one-on-one sessions where Tamara helps folks “detox their life” by helping to identify which consumer goods and household items in their home are free of heavy metal toxicants (Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic and Antimony) and which are good candidates to eliminate from their homes. During these visits, she also gives great advice and support to help parents make #SaferChoices for their families moving forward, offering a unique set of information and tools (tailored to the families she visits) as guidelines to help them limit their family’s potential ongoing exposure to toxicants. To read more about Home Consultations, click here.

Testing Parties

A Testing Party is like a one-on-one home consultation where the host invites friends to bring things to be tested (using XRF technology) and to help share the cost of the home visit. It ends up being a crash-course in metallic neurotoxicants commonly found in our homes — and how to avoid them. Testing parties often have between 6 and 10 participants – are usually a lot of fun and have often been compared to a “reverse Tupperware party”  – where the outcome is not that the host and guests buy things, but rather that they end up getting rid of things in their homes that are potential or confirmed sources of heavy metal exposure. To read more about Testing Parties, click here.

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Rates – in most cities:
(subject to change)

DAY RATES, United States

• Public Speaking / Outreach Events: $5,500/ half day or $7,500 full day (up to three events in a full day, schedule permitting). $10,000 for two full days, with up to two events each day. [Travel time and travel costs included]
• Private Engagements: $2,000/day (one location, one appointment up to four hours long), plus $1,500 per travel day — depending on location; usually one to two travel days are necessary for a full day of consulting. Travel is normally calculated as originating from Portland, Oregon. For example, an East Coast private engagement might require two full travel days but a California private engagement would normally just require one full travel day. [Travel costs (flight, ground transportation, etc.) included]
• Corporate Consumer Goods Consulting: $5,000/full day [Travel time and travel costs included]
• Small Community Outreach Events: $2,500 – $3,500 for a 2-to-4 hour event [in locations that are already on the Lead Safe Mama, LLC travel schedule for travel months of January, April and October each year.]
• Non-U.S. Locations: Rates can be discussed, and depend on travel time and additional cost factors.

Click here to learn more about Tamara’s outreach events and speaking engagements.

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Testing Parties & Private (one-on-one) Home Consultations*
Rates for 2022

• $500 per hour in most U.S. locations
• Normally $500/hour for a 3-hour or 4-hour appointment ($1,500 to $2,000 total)
• Most events or consultations have a 3-hour minimum.
• Maximum consultation length: 4 hours.
• Longer minimum visits may be required (or a charge for travel time or a higher rate) depending on the anticipated travel time to your location.
• More information on home consultation pricing here.

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Normal Considerations:

• Normal Lead Safe Mama travel months are January, April and October each year.
• Payment must be made in advance to reserve your time and date.
• We can send you an invoice for payment, or you can use one of the electronic payment methods listed below.
• If travel time is greater than 30 minutes, 1/2 of round-trip travel time may be charged in addition to the time of the visit. [or a longer minimum site visit may be required – depending on the travel distance.]
• *Home Visit rates are for when Tamara is in your area already; if you would like to book Tamara to come to your city or state when she is not already going to be there (outside normal travel months of January, April and October each year), she needs to confirm a private engagement or public speaking engagement to bring her to the area. You could also opt for paying the day-rates listed above (to bring her to your area when she is not already scheduled to be there.)
• Included with your consultation is advance calls/communications with Tamara (to help you prepare for her visit), as well as follow-up questions answered via text, e-mail, or messenger (really pretty much “unlimited” – within reason!)

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CoViD-19 Considerations for 2021 & 2022

• Tamara is fully vaccinated.
• All consultations and in-person meetings will be done “CoViD-19 safe” – socially distanced and with masks, and – whenever possible – outdoors (in full or in part.)
• For times when Tamara must be inside a building (or home) with a client we request that the client opens all the windows (for any rooms she will be in with other people) before she arrives and leave them open for the duration of the visit.
• Most small community events / testing parties are limited to 6 in-person attendees at a time (socially distanced, with masks and active outdoor air circulation) unless otherwise restricted by local or federal mandate.

Additional considerations

• Small community events may be live-streamed on the host’s social media channels with advance written permission only.
• The rate for small community events or consultations with businesses start at:
  • $2,500 for a 2 to 4 hour event
  • or $500/hour for private business (or legal) consultations with a 3 hour minimum
• For zoom presentations (classes, speaking engagements, etc.) the fee is $500 for a one-hour presentation or interactive discussion (this may include recording of the session with advance written agreement.)
• For personal phone or zoom consultations (one-on-one with families) the fee is $250 for a one-hour consultation (recording of the session is not allowed.)
• To tentatively reserve a time-slot and location for an in-person consultation, a 50% deposit of your fee is required. This fee is 100% refundable if – for any reason – your consultation is cancelled.
• The remaining 50% for an in-person consultation or event must be paid at least two weeks before your consultation to confirm. Due to CoViD-19 considerations this is also fully refundable if your appointment is cancelled for any reason (by either party.)
• All consultations (in person or virtual) and events must be paid for in full in advance to confirm a time-slot. 
• Preferred payment method is Venmo: @TamaraERubin or Zelle to: 503-702-2708. PayPal is also an option.

Note: all income received via PayPal, Venmo and Zelle is reported as normal business income to Lead Safe Mama, LLC.

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Legal disclaimer for private consultations:

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Tamara is not a hazard assessor / risk assessor or home inspector. She does not normally provide any written reports with her work with families. If you need an inspection and a written report about your home by a hazard assessor (or other professional) please let us know and we will do our best to refer an appropriate local professional to you for those services.

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Click here to read the refund policy.
This is linked in the footer on every page of this website.

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Phone Consultations

Phone or video personal consultations are normally billed at $250 an hour, with a one-hour minimum. You can email photos and tests results (if that is what you have questions about) in advance of your call to TamaraRubin@mac.com. Please pay in advance to confirm your time slot (Venmo preferred: @TamaraERubin). More details about phone / zoom consultations here.

As always, thank you for reading. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin & The Lead Safe Mama Team!