Rae Dunn (By Magenta) Naughty & Nice Christmas Plate: 2,363 ppm Lead + Arsenic, too!

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).

This Rae Dunn “Naughty & Nice” Christmas Plate (by Magenta) was positive for Lead when tested with an XRF instrument. Read more about the testing here.

XRF test results for the dish pictured:

Front (plain white glazed):
• Lead (Pb): 2,363 +/- 78 ppm
• Arsenic (As): 172 +/- 52 ppm

White area with red words:
• Lead (Pb): 2,094 +/- 82 ppm
• Arsenic (As): 109 +/- 55 ppm

Click here to see more Rae Dunn pieces I have tested.

Interestingly enough, this is the highest Lead content in a Rae Dunn piece I have tested. Most of the Rae Dunn pieces I have tested have been in the #LeadSafe/ #LowLead range (below 200 ppm Lead).

In general, christmas and holiday themed ceramic items are often very high in Lead. (Check out my Christmas category here.) My educated guess (based on what I know from the sheer quantity of items I have tested) is that this may be because the items are seen more as decorative and less as functional ceramics intended for food use, so companies are not paying attention as much to the toxicant content of these items. Of course, this is purely speculation!

Here is a link to see this item on Amazon.*

As always, thank you for reading and for sharing this work.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Elise Rubin
#LeadSafeMama