Precision Metals brass rod for “School Projects,” Made in USA: Lead-free! (But with 194 ppm Arsenic!)

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 tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023.

When tested with an XRF instrument this brass rod (sold for hobby projects – and specifically marketed as being useful for “school projects” – at the local hardware store) had the following readings:

Arsenic (As): 194 +/- 13 ppm
Selenium (Se): 1948 +/- 76 ppm
Zinc (Zn): 37,200 +/- 800 ppm
Copper (Cu): 77,700 +/- 1,600 ppm
Bismuth (Bi): 140 +/- 12 ppm

This material was tested for a minimum of 60 seconds for each (repeated) test to make sure to report the most accurate possible reading.

I will update this post with more information shortly, but in the meantime – please read some of the other posts I have written to better understand the test results reported on this website.

As always – thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama