#AskTamara
Question: “Tamara, can you come to my home and make sure my stuff is safe for my kids?”
Answer: “Why yes! I can do that!”
Depending on my travel schedule (and if I have a sponsored event or am already going to be in the area), I do what I call “Healthy Home Consultations” for parents concerned for the presence of Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium and other bad stuff in their home.
The focus of my #HealthyHomeConsultations is checking out your consumer goods and personal possessions, identifying which ones are potentially toxic or problematic and helping you to identify #SaferChoices for your family and your home.
[Disclaimer: I am not a hazard assessor and do not provide any kind of a written report with these home consultations*. Instead you should think of my visit as more of a specialized “home-health therapy session.”]
*If you need a written report or a hazard assessment for any reason, I can make recommendations to professionals in your area who do this sort thing.
In preparation for my visit, I often speak with you in advance (or communicate via text or Facebook messages), to help you focus your questions for the time we will spend together.
In addition, after I leave I try to provide as much support as you might need in response to my visit. Specifically, I make myself available for follow-up questions and get you links to research and other documentation (about products, specific potential toxicant exposure situations and possible impacts on your family) to the degree that I can.
I currently live in Portland, Oregon and travel frequently to:
- The San Francisco Bay Area,
- The Los Angeles Area [including Santa Monica & Orange County]
- The Denver, Colorado Area
- The Boston, Massachusetts area
for other work and projects.
Home consultations in the above areas are more likely to happen sooner than later. For areas not within an hour or two drive of those centers, I generally need to have an event already scheduled nearby in order to also be available for a home visit (I especially love doing work in the Santa Monica/Los Angeles/Orange County area!)
I have also heard from friends, fans and readers interested in home consultations in the following areas. If we can find enough people in these areas to make sure my travel costs are covered, they are all a possibility for the near future:
- Austin, Texas
- Rhode Island
- Brooklyn, New York
- New Jersey
- Georgia (the country)
- Australia
- England
- Denmark
Here are the background posts I usually share with people who are interested in having a #HealthyHomeConsultation with me:
- The index of items here on this site that I have tested with an XRF instrument. LINK
- Things I recommend testing with a LeadCheck swab. LINK
- Things I recommend testing with an XRF instrument. LINK
- A post about the testing methodologies I use in my work. LINK
- My “Consult” link with some background about me as well as the rates for my services. LINK
If I am already going to be in the area, depending on the city – I have a minimum of 2 or 3 hours for a home visit (within an hour drive of where I am going to be), and do not charge for travel time. If you are more than an hour from where I will be I will either charge for travel time or coordinate a longer minimum visit with you (usually 3 or 4-hours depending on your location.) If I am not already scheduled to be in an area for another event or visit, I need to charge a day-rate for both the work day for a visit as well as for the travel days to get to and from the location. Rates are on this LINK.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading and for sharing the posts and information on my blog.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Hello! Can I send you some toys I bought by mistake from China? I will obviously pay for shipping, but I would love for you to test!
Come back to New Orleans!!! Lead is horrible here! I think I saw NOLA featured in MISlead. ❤️ Thanks for all you do!!
I’m coming at the end of April and don’t have any plans there yet. I am working on lining up some community events and will also have availability for home consultations if you are interested. Email me: TamaraRubin@mac.com
Tamara
I live in Pennsylvania and would love for you to come to my house to test my stuff, we only lived in the house for a little over a year and this is out first place so we have gotten hand me down kitchen items and since i found your page im kinda freaking out over my dishes/bowls since they are colorful and are pretty. i know its out of your way not sure how we would do that.
Hi there!
I will follow up with you. I’m not sure I will be in PA this summer – but may end up there in September.
Tamara
Do you travel through Chattanooga Knoxville or Nashville area?
Hi Lindsey! We may! I will know in the next day or two what our return cross schedule trip will look like… but for the first leg we will be headed from Boston, Mass to Arkansas – so Tennessee is definitely possible. Please text me if you would like more information about a home consultation in the next week or two: 415-609-3182. While I have not yet updated this post – here is how I am handling the visits for the cross-country tour: https://tamararubin.com/2020/07/how-to-participate-in-the-lead-safe-mama-august-2020-u-s-a-socially-distanced-cross-country-tour-covid-19-permitting/
Thanks for commenting!
Tamara
Due to Covid, I’m sure home parties are out for now. However, I have a number of neighbors and friends interested in having items tested. (Seattle area) Would you consider doing a virtual visit where we all send our items to you for testing?
Thank you for the work you do!!