Home Depot Purchased Orange Extension Cord: 3,494 ppm Arsenic + 50 ppm Lead + 4,113 ppm Antimony
Extension Cord | Home Depot | Tool | Tools | XRF Testing | XRFTesting
This orange contractor grade extension cord was purchased in a Home Depot store circa 2000.
When tested with an XRF instrument this extension cord had the following readings – on the orange part of the cord – (testing done for a minimum of 60 seconds, test results are replicable).
- Lead (Pb): 50 +/- 14 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): non-detect / negative
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect / negative
- Arsenic (As): 3,494 +/- 101 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 547 +/- 83 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): non-detect / negative
- Antimony (Sb): 4,113 +/- 102 ppm
- Selenium (Se): non-detect / negative
- Tin (Sn): 68 +/- 24 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 230 +/- 37 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 256 +/- 89 ppm
Metals not listed were not detected / testing was done for a minium of 60 seconds.
Moral of the story (not much of a story):
Definitely don’t let children play with tools intended for the workshop or garage.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama 
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Husky extension cords at HomeDepot are ROHS certified, but I’m still a little weary of them. However, it seems to be the best bet for an indoor extension cord. (I do studio work, and I have no choice. I need at least one extension cord to spread the load out over more than one circuit.) We also lose electricity due to weather from time to time, and we need indoor extension cords to get power from the generator. This is the only one I’m finding that is ROHS, and it doesn’t have a Prop65 warning, which I find promising as well.