Tamara, can you come to my home and make sure my stuff is safe for my kids?

#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:

1. The index of items here on this site that I have tested with an XRF instrument. LINK
2. Things I recommend testing with a LeadCheck swab. LINK
3. Things I recommend testing with an XRF instrument. LINK
4. A post about the testing methodologies I use in my work. LINK
5. 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, I have a minimum of 2.5 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. 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