Vintage (Made in Japan) ceramic Santa Claus Christmas mug: As high as 5,077 ppm Lead

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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).

When tested with an XRF instrument, this vintage “Made in Japan” Santa mug was positive for Lead at the following levels:

Outside mug Lead (Pb) level: 4,497 +/- 180 ppm
Inside mug Lead (Pb) level: 5,077 +/- 177 ppm

Non-Detect (ND/ Negative) for:

Cadmium (Cd)
Arsenic (As)
Mercury (Hg)

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, this means the ceramic).

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Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama