Vintage Red Plaid Thermos Brand Lunchbox: 58,400 ppm Lead + 6 ppm Mercury (90 ppm Lead is unsafe for kids)

For those new to the Lead Safe Mama 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 four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!

When tested with an XRF instrument, this vintage Thermos Brand lunch box had the following readings:

Exterior Decorated Elements of Lunchbox:

• Lead (Pb): 58,400 +/- 700 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): Non-Detect / Negative
• Cadmium (Cd): Non-Detect / Negative
• Arsenic (As): Non-Detect / Negative
• Chromium (Cr): 7,781 +/- 259 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 880,800 +/- 1,900 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 36,000 +/0 800 ppm
• Platinium (Pt): 1,324 +/- 478 ppm
• Cobalt (C0): 9,497 +/- 1,341 ppm
• Magnesium (Mn): 3,508 +/- 584 ppm

Black Plastic of Handle:

• Lead (Pb): 41 +/- 4 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): 6 +/- 3 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): Non-Detect / Negative
• Arsenic (As): Non-Detect / Negative
• Copper (Cu): 12 +/- 7 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 69 +/- 14 ppm

Interior White-painted Surface:

• Lead (Pb): Non-Detect / Negative
• Mercury (Hg): Non-Detect / Negative
• Cadmium (Cd): Non-Detect / Negative
• Arsenic (As): Non-Detect / Negative
• Chromium (Cr): 279 +/- 93 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 169 +/- 57 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 905,700 +/- 1,800 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 84,200 +/- 1,100 ppm
• Cobalt (Co): 5,301 +/- 1,434 ppm
• Magnesium (Mn): 3,149 +/- 565 ppm

Each reading was conducted for at least 60 seconds. Metals not listed were not detected in “Consumer Goods” mode.

As always, thank you for reading and sharing these results.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama