Things Lead Safe Mama and readers have accomplished together and why we still need your support #SmallVictories #BigVictories
Did you know Marble King removed the “Lead-free” labeling from their website and packaging as a result of this work?
Are you in a position to help keep Lead Safe Mama, LLC doing what we do? (Everything we accomplish here is through the support and involvement of our readers!)
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 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for six 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 news coverage of our work, linked here.
Below is just one example of how, together, we have made a difference (and why this work is so important!):
The photo below is of Leaded Marble King Marbles, taken by my son Avi earlier this year (2019). You can check out part of his eighth grade school project with the test results for these exact marbles at this link.
In early 2017, when I first tested Marble King marbles and found they resulted positive for Lead, Marble King was selling and marketing these Leaded marbles as “Lead-free” (see screenshots above from January 26, 2017).
Marble King’s initial response to these findings of Lead in their “Lead-free” products was a phone call from their lawyers demanding I “retract” my test results (asserting my results were somehow inaccurate or false) and issuing ominous veiled (and not-so-veiled) threats!
However, some time after we brought the issue to their attention (that several of the “Lead-free” colored marbles contained Lead at levels considered unsafe in a child’s toy), the company completely removed the “Lead-free” language from its website and packaging!
Marble King still sells marbles (and the marbles still have Lead) — but they are no longer marketed or labeled “Lead-Free!”
This outcome is in large part thanks to your support of Lead Safe Mama’s work in so many ways! #SmallVictories
Please continue reading below the image!
Now for the #BigVictories on the horizon:
Manufacturers of toys (and dishware, pots and pans, and sippy cups) aren’t the only ones who have first tried to discredit my work before capitulating and letting the truth prevail. In the past three years, government agencies and their representatives have used these same tactics in an effort to discredit my advocacy work time after time. We, as engaged citizens, cannot stand for this being allowed to happen. We need to fight for justice (and freedom from unfair and illegal persecution at the hands of publicly-funded agencies), not only for my work, but also for the work of environmental activists everywhere.
To do this, standing for what is right and continuing to fight, I again need your help as Lead Safe Mama readers joining the new phase of this battle to ensure manufacturers don’t get away with “next level” injustice.
For the upcoming new phase of my larger legal battle, I still urgently need to cover the expenses retainer for the attorney I plan on hiring to sue the State of Oregon for the attacks against my work that started in February 2016. The full expenses retainer needed is $10,000. The minimum retainer needed right away is $7,500. If a total of 20 people each loaned $500, the whole amount would be covered. (Three families have already helped in this way with loans of $500 or $1,000 each, so the minimum left to raise is $5,000 and the total left to raise is $7,500!)
This money will be paid back when my family farm sale closes (“on or before December 31st”). Can anyone help in this way? (Joining the three families who have already chipped in?) The attorney asked for the retainer by June 12, so I’m on the verge of *not* having this work out well, and the request is therefore fairly urgent. Thank you in advance. This is the home stretch to victory, to seeing justice served for three years of illegal persecution at the hands of government agencies.
I am not asking for a handout — what I am asking for is a small investment in the success of this growing business (an investment that will help see justice served). I will be repaying these loans with generous interest within the next six months. If you can help now in this way (with a loan that would ensure a much bigger victory!), I won’t have to borrow money from “hard-money” lenders to cover this! (I’d rather have any “hard-money-loan-type interest” go to my *friends* rather than some *stranger*!)
Here are some ways to send money and help me cover this legal retainer (the attorney is taking the case on *contingency* so this retainer is just to cover her expenses for re-filing the case against the state in federal court).
• PayPal: TamaraRubin@Mac.com
• Zelle: 503-702-2708
• Venmo: TamaraERubin
• GoFundMe: http://www.GoFundMe.com/LeadSafeMama
• CreditCard (via PayPal): https://tamararubin.com/2017/01/chip-in/
Thank you for anything you can do to help us win and close this chapter in mine and my family’s life.
I also expect many more #SmallVictories are on the horizon … so stay tuned!
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Never Miss an Important Article Again!
Join our Email List