July 5, 2018 Note From Pura Stating They are Still Selling old Baby Bottle Inventory With Lead

---

Introduction (for those new to this website):

Tamara Rubin is a federal-award-winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children, her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005. Since 2009 Tamara has been using XRF testing (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. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023.

---

Below is an e-mail from Pura to a customer (Erika) on July 5th, in response to her inquiry about lead found in their insulated stainless steel baby bottles in 2018.

Their e-mail clearly states (in sort of a round-about-way) that Pura is still selling old inventory which they know has neurotoxic lead in one of the components.

The lead in this product is in the form of a solid lead solder sealing “dot” on the bottom of the bottle (ostensibly “safely covered” under a bottom “cap”, which Pura asserts does not come off under “normal use”).

Once their customers (mothers who are also my friends and followers) began reporting to Pura that their bottom caps had come off under “normal use” by their babies, exposing the lead, (and that their babies had actually interacted with the leaded sealing dot in an unsafe way before these mothers learned it was lead), Pura deemed this to be a serious enough concern that they decided to change their manufacturing method (to remove the lead).

In fact, the amount of lead in any one of these sealing dots is more than enough to severely poison any child that might come into direct contact with it when the bottom cap pops off (e.g. when the bottle is damaged by being thrown, or dropped repeatedly as could be expected with “normal use” by a baby).

In the July 5, 2018 letter below, the company also states that they are still selling this leaded inventory even though they have now switched their production method to using lead-free solder (a switch made because they realized it was a problem that needed to be remedied!)

To note: I have not yet (as of 7/8/2018) personally seen (or tested) one single Pura Kiki insulated stainless steel baby bottle with lead-free solder. All of their insulated bottles that I have tested (disassembled) have had lead.

*** I wonder how much “old inventory” they still need to sell before we start seeing the new lead-free inventory regularly in the hands of customers. ***

In the meantime, their packaging in 2018 still boasts that this product specifically (the insulated stainless steel baby bottle) is “Made Safe Nontoxic Certified” (implying that the product is lead-free) — even when the product inside the packaging with this label may be from the “old inventory” and therefore may have lead (as shown in our video from last week, link here)!

All around, there seem to be both bad business practices (putting very young children potentially at risk due to faulty products with lead) and false advertising at work here.

My request for action:

1. That Pura initiates a voluntary recall of their leaded product.
2. That “Made Safe” rescinds its certification of this product until all of the leaded stock is recalled.
3. I also am following up with the CPSC to see if we can get them to fix the loophole that has allowed at least four brands of baby bottles to be made and sold in 2017 and 2018 with either lead paint or leaded sealing dots. It’s 2018 people, we know how bad lead is. Our government regulations should not allow ANY use of lead in ANY products intended to be used by babies.

If you have an extra $25 or so, please consider ordering one of these Pura Kiki insulated stainless bottles new online (here’s my Amazon affiliate link for the product in question*) and having it sent directly to me for testing so we can quantify (to some degree) the current availability of their “old stock”/leaded bottles. My mailing address is:

Tamara Rubin
Lead Safe Mama
7933 SE 15th Avenue
Portland, OR 97202

As always, thank you for reading! And, please consider chipping in something to support my independent consumer goods testing and Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work, because no other advocate is pursuing these concerns to the degree (depth and breadth of the issue) that I am, and I couldn’t do what I do without the help and support of my friends, fans, and followers!

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

*If you purchase something via one of my Amazon affiliate links I may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you.

_______________________

Below is the full e-mail including Pura’s full signature (which, until they stop selling their leaded stock, really should be amended to say “Our Kiki line is crafted from only food grade stainless steel, medical grade silicone, and Lead…”)