Vintage cloth Raggedy Andy doll: 4,941 ppm Lead (90 ppm & up is unsafe) + 238 ppm Arsenic (in the button eyes)
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.
When tested with an XRF instrument, the vintage Raggedy Andy doll pictured here had the following readings:
Black plastic button eyes (image above):
- Lead (Pb): 4,062. +/- 56 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 132 +/- 32 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 229 +/- 18 ppm
White plastic “suspender” buttons (image above):
White plastic “suspender” buttons (image above):- Lead (Pb): 4,941. +/- 71 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 238 +/- 38 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 531 +/- 18 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 25 +/- 16 ppm
Small white buttons at knees (shell, image above):
- Zinc (Zn): 2,401 +/- 121 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 110 +/- 48 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 928 +/- 115
- Indium (In): 30 +/- 11 ppm
Area with only cloth (the center belly of the front of the doll):
- Lead (Pb): 4 +/- 3 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 30 +/- 7 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 34 +/- 11 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 74 +/- 20 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 342 +/- 160 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 4,430 +/- 312
Metals not listed above were not detected by the XRF instrument in “consumer goods” mode. All tests reported on this website were done for a minimum of 60 seconds (unless otherwise noted) and were repeated to confirm accuracy. Test results are accurate, replicable, and science-based.
As always, thank you for reading and sharing my articles.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
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I’m have questions. Many questions. Are ALL buttons made of neuro toxins??? WTF?! Why on earth are buttons made with lead? That’s not a flaking paint, that’s a solid toxic disk! OMG what kind of insanity is running and ruining this world???
Sadly, a lot of buttons are bad. A local shop has a display of buttons by the Dill company that actually has a POSTED SIGN ON TOP OF THE DISPLAY that reads “Contains known carcinogens”!!!
On the topic of this Raggedy Andy doll, it appears to me to be a home made one, I doubt you would ever see another that looks like this one.