2019 Cost Plus/ World Market “Here Comes Santa Claus” Christmas dish: 1,705 ppm Lead (90 & up 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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When tested with an XRF instrument, this “Here comes Santa Claus” Christmas dish (“Made in China” and purchased at World Market in November 2019 for $5.99) had the following readings:

XRF test focused on the red of Santa’s hat:

• Lead (Pb): 1,395 +/- 70 ppm 
• Cadmium (Cd): 732 +/- 35 ppm
• Selenium (Se): 540 +/- 37 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 2,478 +/- 136 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 102 +/- 44 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 1,389 +/- 220 ppm
• Bismuth (Bi): 225 +/- 29 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 1,358 +/- 114 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 10,400 +/- 500 ppm
• Zirconium (Zr): 1,853 +/- 64 ppm

XRF test focused on the white background of the dish:

• Lead (Pb): 77 +/- 17 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 713 +/- 60 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 1,942 +/- 225 ppm
• Bismuth (Bi): 239 +/- 24 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 161 +/- 32 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 486 +/- 58 ppm
• Silver (Ag): 11 +/- 6 ppm

XRF test focused on the peach of Santa’s face:

• Lead (Pb): 1,705 +/- 72 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 60 +/- 11 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 54 +/- 18 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 3,372 +/- 162 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 1,538 +/- 222 ppm
• Bismuth (Bi): 153 +/- 26 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 3,433 +/- 190 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 15,800 +/- 700 ppm
• Zirconium (Zr): 2,257 +/- 75 ppm

To see more Christmas items I have tested, click here.

To see more items from Cost Plus/ World Market that I have tested, click here.

The amount of Lead considered unsafe in an item manufactured today and intended for use by children is anything 90 ppm Lead or higher in the paint, glaze, or coating. The sick irony is that in America today — specifically in November of 2019 — a dish with a picture of Santa and the words “Here Comes Santa Claus” is not considered to be an item intended for use by children and therefore is exempt from that regulatory standard. This is a regulatory loophole where only dishes marketed and sold (and packaged) as children’s dishes are required to meet the above-referenced standard (which is the standard that was set by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008).

This is simply not okay, Cost Plus/ World Market. Time to make some changes, eh? I’m going to leave this up to the readers to start calling in and complaining — advocating for a corporate-wide policy change across all World Market-branded glazed ceramic products.

To my readers, as always, thank you for reading and sharing this work.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Please also let me know if you hear back from World Market when you bring this to their attention!

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama