This black Fossil brand genuine leather wallet was negative for Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Arsenic (As) and Mercury (Hg) when tested with an XRF instrument.
Metals are often used to make dyes for leather, so it is not uncommon to see lead or cadmium in a leather item like a wallet or purse. The older the item (generally) the more likely it is to have lead and/or cadmium. I don’t know how old this wallet is, it belonged to my late father-in-law and I would imagine he bought it in the 1980s or early 1990s.
Here are all of the metals that were detected when this wallet was tested with an XRF:
- Barium (Ba): 622 +/- 167 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 9,816 +/- 263 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 13 +/- 4 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 649 +/- 35 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 83 +/- 17 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 53 +/- 20 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 333 +/- 55 ppm
As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Here is a link* to a wallet that appears to be almost the exact same wallet.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
*Links may be Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links I may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my advocacy work in this way. 
Isn’t the chromium a toxic, carcinogenic heavy metal that we want to avoid in leather?
I thought vegetable-tanned leather was better than chrome-tanned leather? For the environment and workers for sure, but I would assume we wouldn’t want to be touching something like a leather wallet or leather purse multiple times a day, right?
Most leather is tanned with Chromium. I’m not aware of any related poisoning or exposure cases of concern. Natural materials and dyes are always preferable to heavy metals.