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.
Whenever I take pics for my website, one of my kitties seems to get in the way! This one is Dumbledore!
Continue reading below the images.
Vintage (1950s?) Tin Spinning top toy With Rockets & Spacemen: 19,300 ppm Lead
No brand marking or maker noted.
When tested with an XRF instrument, this toy had the following readings:
- Lead (Pb): 19,300 +/- 500 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 4,701 +/- 209 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 889,600 +/- 1,900 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 75,400 +/- 1,000 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 5,982 +/- 1,446 ppm
- Magnesium (Mn): 3,198 +/- 598 ppm
- If a metal is not listed it was not detected.
The amount of Lead considered illegal (and unsafe) in a newly manufactured toy made today is anything 90 ppm Lead or higher in the coating. Of particular interest on this toy is the amount of wear on the bottom. A signifiant amount of the Lead painted decoration has worn off through normal use (see image below).
IF you own one of these vintage toys, I implore you to NOT let the children in your life play with it. (Thank you!)
Continue reading below image.
To see more vintage toys I have tested, click here.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading and for sharing this work.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
I purchased a spinning top at a flea market. Its brand is Ohio Art and has the circus train and animals on it. Do you know anything about it?