Vintage 1980 Strawberry Shortcake Glass: 65,800 ppm Lead + 2,622 ppm Cadmium + 77 ppm MERCURY! (90 ppm Lead is unsafe for kids)

 

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For those new to this website:

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005). Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (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 tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).

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Published: February 22, 2019

Some background if you are new here: The amount of Lead considered toxic in a newly manufactured item intended for use by children today (in 2019) is anything 90 ppm Lead (or higher) in the paint or coating. 100 ppm Lead (or higher) is considered unsafe/illegal in the substrate of an item intended to be used by children.

Vintage dishware is not regulated in this way (for total Lead content as detectable with an XRF instrument). To learn more about XRF testing, click here. Even new/ modern dishware is also not regulated for total Lead content as detectable with an XRF instrument.

XRF instrumentation is used by labs and government agencies (like the CPSC) to determine how much metal (including toxicants like Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic) are in consumer goods (and therefore, whether or not they are compliant with current regulatory standards). As a rule, regulatory agencies do not test or regulate vintage or antique items at all.

To see more character glasses (from your childhood?) we have tested and reported results for on the Lead Safe Mama website, click here!

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When tested with an XRF instrument, (with each test lasting at least 2-minutes/120 seconds) this vintage Strawberry Shortcake juice glass (c. 1980) had the following readings (metals not listed were not detected by the XRF instrument):

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Reading #1) White Painted Area:

• Lead (Pb): 57,300 +/- 1,200 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 1,013 +/- 46 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): 77 +/- 37 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 122 +/- 26 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 16,00 +/- 600 ppm
• Platinum (Pt): 528 +/- 135 ppm

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Reading #2) Red Painted Area:

• Lead (Pb): 65,800 +/- 1,500 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 2,622 +/- 109 ppm
• Selenium (Se): 694 +/- 51 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 116 +/- 26 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 7,702 +/- 328 ppm
• Silver (Ag): 17 +/- 8 ppm
• Platinum (Pt): 517 +/- 143 ppm

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Reading #3) Green Painted Area:

• Lead (Pb): 55,800 +/- 1,300 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 1,916 +/- 81 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): 2,302 +/- 121 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 1,873 +/- 90 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 1,390 +/- 173 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 9,109 +/- 369 ppm
• Platinum (Pt): 468 +/- 140 ppm
• Cobalt (Co): 608 +/- 99 ppm

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Reading #4) Plain Clear Glass (on bottom):

• Bromine (Br): 7 +/- 3 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 320 +/- 122 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 71 +/- 21 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 149 +/- 31 ppm

If you’re thinking “Now what should I do with these toxic items from my childhood?” you may want to check out this piece. And if you would like more information (perhaps from the scientific community?) as to whether items like this are “really” a hazard (and potentially dangerous to your family), click here to read about a study from 2017 that addressed the concern for Lead and Cadmium (alongside other toxicants) found in glassware.

My personal recommendation is not having items like this in your home, and definitely not letting your children drink from them or play with them. If you MUST hold onto these (for whatever sentimental reason), please consider putting them inside a sealed shadow box.

Thank you for reading and sharing our work. 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama