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). Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February 2023 (March 2023 print edition).
When tested with an XRF instrument, this “Christmas pickle” purchased at the Dollar Tree store (manufactured by Greenbrier International and Made in China) had the following readings:
On the main foam body of this sparkly green “Christmas pickle”:
- Zinc (Zn): 34 +/- 19 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 385 +/- 46 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 2,413 +/- 131 ppm
- No other metals were detected.
On golden plastic cap* on the top (to hang it from):
- Lead (Pb): 45 +/- 6 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 523 +/- 143 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 85 +/- 57 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 11 +/- 2 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 133 +/- 12 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 54 +/- 13 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 15 +/- 10 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 722 +/- 45 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 541 +/- 305 ppm
- No other metals were detected.
*Almost every single cap like this (the little plastic or metal tops for hanging Christmas ornaments) that I have tested have been positive for Lead at trace levels similar to this one.
Test results reported on this website are accurate, science-based, and replicable. Testing was done for a minimum of 60 seconds per component and repeated multiple times to confirm the results. Each set of results found was similar to the results sets noted above.
How much Lead is unsafe?
Christmas ornaments are not regulated at all — as they are not manufactured or marketed as “items intended for use by children” (they are in fact generally considered to be “home decor,” which is a wholly unregulated category of consumer goods!). But for reference, the amount of Lead that is considered illegal and unsafe in an item that is expressly manufactured and sold as something to be used by children is anything 90 ppm Lead or higher in the paint, glaze, or coating, and anything 100 ppm Lead or higher in the substrate. Given this came in at only 45 ppm Lead, it would be considered safe by all current standards (U.S. and European).
Some additional reading:
- To see more Christmas ornaments I have tested, click here.
- To see more Dollar Store items I have tested, click here.
- To see more Greenbrier International items I have tested, click here.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts!
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
They have this on Amazon if you want to add it to your Amazon affiliate links. Thank you for testing this. Going to buy it since my family is German and my kids just found out it’s a German tradition to hide the pickle on the tree and find it. Haha. So cute.
Thank you!