Okay…now some trolls are accusing me of “capitalizing” on my kids’ lead poisoning!

Offering information and services that help people protect their families and getting paid for your time and knowledge is not “capitalizing” on a tragedy, it’s stepping up and doing what is right, doing what others might not have the energy, time or courage to do. [Especially when you consider that most of what I do I do for free, without compensation.]

I wanted to share this troll’s message (to the right here and a larger view below) with you as just one example of the troll messages I have gotten. [There have been so many recently, I am going to start publishing more of them in blog posts. I save each and every one!] Not only did he publish this sentiment, but he left a whole string of comments including ones insulting my friends!

I could take this troll’s comments apart point by point, but I am not going to waste my time doing that.

One point I did want to clarify about our situation (in case others have this misconception as well): the paint job that poisoned my children was **only** on the exterior of my home.

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To reiterate some of the more important points of our story:

• My children were poisoned when we HIRED a CONTRACTOR who said he was TRAINED AND CERTIFIED in using lead-safe work practices to repaint pre-1978 homes.
• This contractor charged us EXTRA (the initial bid was over $18,000!) (This was significantly more expensive than the other bids we got because the contractor we chose promised he was going to do things SAFELY!!!)
• The contractor and his team were only working on the EXTERIOR of our home.
• The contractor ASSURED US that it was safe for us to stay in the home during the work because he was only working on the EXTERIOR.
• The contractor came HIGHLY RECOMMEND by others having their homes repainted in the neighborhood, and while we had the small house on the block he was mostly working on MILLION DOLLAR PLUS homes (and this was in 2005.) He was the EXPENSIVE solution because of his assurances of safety.
• Later (after our children were poisoned) we learned that the contractor had LIED to us.That even though he was LICENSED as a contractor and ostensibly had INSURANCE (which his lawyer claimed expired the day before our children were poisoned), that his lead-safe work practices CERTIFICATE was never issued as he FAILED the CERTIFICATION EXAM at least twice.
• Also instead of using LEAD SAFE WORK PRACTICES in repainting the exterior of our home he used THE MOST DANGEROUS METHODS POSSIBLE to remove the exterior original lead paint to prepare the siding for repainting.
• These methods included  OPEN FLAME TORCH BURNING and DRY SCRAPING without PROPER CONTAINMENT. The fumes from the burning of the paint seeped into my home, poisoned my children and contaminated my home and all of my possessions.
• Not only did he POISON my family, but he also POISONED HIMSELF and HIS WORKERS in the process.
• Because the local (OREGON) law on the books at the time was only an ADMINISTRATIVE LAW at the time, there was no FINE nor PUNISHMENT for what he did.
• CONTRACTORS ACROSS THE COUNTRY CONTINUE to do this sort of thing EVERY DAY today in 2018.
• In part as a result of my advocacy there are now ENFORCEABLE LAWS on the books (Nationally and State-by-State) and VIOLATIONS of those laws come with stiff FINES and PENALTIES.
• Every day I live with the repercussions of this contractor’s MASSIVE MISTAKE.
• My work is an effort to make the best of what has happened to us, to use our experience to HELP others.
• As part of my lawsuit against the CONTRACTOR (in which our “settlement” only covered enough to pay the legal bill for the case) I made a condition of the settlement be that this contractor PASS the certification exam for him to continue working as a contractor (which he did and has.)

Thanks for reading.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

AND – IF you want to help SUPPORT MY ADVOCACY WORK (work for which I have real and directly related expenses that are not covered by anyone else!) please consider clicking on one of my AMAZON AFFILIATE links BEFORE you start your shopping. You don’t need to purchase one of my recommendations for me to get credit for your purchase, but if you start your shopping by clicking on one of my affiliate links I will receive about 6% of what you spend (at no extra cost to you!) Thank you. Here’s an affiliate link to start your shopping with! [And here’s my “chip in” link if you want to donate directly. [Or you can use my GoFundMe link too!]

Thank you.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama