#Leaded: Glazed Ceramic Christmas Stocking Desk Decoration, by TriCoastalDesign.com

Ceramic stocking (desk top decoration) by TriCoastalDesign.com:

Lead: 33,200 +/- 1,300 ppm
Cadmium: 3,258 +/- 249 ppm*

When I test an item like this and find a high Lead level on one color, I don’t bother testing each of the additional colors because “that’s enough!”  I am also pissed off, because this is yet another example of an item being marketed to adults and therefore exempt from toxicity regulations BUT most likely an item that will eventually be used by children (if not given to a child right off the bat, on purpose — not as a hand-me-down!).

Tested with an XRF instrument, this piece was negative for arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg).

*Red glaze is often positive for high levels of cadmium (Cd). You might remember your paint colors from grade school (depending on how old you are!)… “Cadmium yellow,” “cadmium red,” and “cadmium orange” were common colors back in the day! (Just as was/is “Lead white.”)

By modern standards, the amount of Lead considered toxic in an item intended to be used by children is 90 ppm Lead (or higher) in the glaze or coating and 100 ppm Lead (or higher) in the substrate (in the case of mugs, the ceramic).

If you would like to see more pieces like this, please consider making a contribution in support of this independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work. Any amount is welcome and you can chip-in here. Thank you!

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).