Published: October 10, 2020
Updated: September 2022
To see more Bunnykins items that have tested by Lead Safe Mama, LLC, click here. Vintage Bunnykins ARE NOT SAFE FOR FOOD USE and especially not safe for children to use! For context: anything made today (2020) with over 90 ppm Lead in the paint, glaze or coating is considered illegal in the United States if it is an item that is intended for use by children.
Reading #1) Center of food surface of dish (reading on colorful design):
68-second reading
- Lead (Pb): 93,600 +/- 5,000 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 3,460 +/- 601 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,346 +/- 452 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 1,478 +/- 179 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 169 +/- 112 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 935 +/- 107 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 1,951 +/- 148 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 220 +/- 66 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 2,856 +/- 290 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 14,700 +/- 3,400 ppm
Reading #2) Center of food surface of dish (reading of area without design):
60-second reading
- Lead (Pb): 23,300 +/- 700 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 1,965 +/- 175 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,602 +/- 261 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 627 +/- 85 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 4,265 +/- 2,004 ppm
Reading #3) second reading on center of food surface of dish (reading of area without design):
30-second reading (on a less worn surface of the bowl)
- Lead (Pb): 39,400 +/- 2,200 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 2,447 +/- 437 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,554 +/- 511 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 641 +/- 167 ppm
- No Chlorine detected in this reading
Additional images of the item are below
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. Tamara’s sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in August of 2005. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009 and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. Her work was also responsible for two CPSC product recalls in the summer of 2022, the Jumping Jumperoo recall (June 2022) and the Lead painted NUK baby bottle recall (July 2022) and was featured in an NPR story about Lead in consumer goods in August of 2022. Tamara uses 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 and reported on. Please click through to this link to learn more about the testing methodology used for the test results discussed and reported on this website.
Thank you for this! We have had one bowl like this in circulation that our 9 year old daughter would use (maybe once a week). I’ll be taking it out of the cupboard immediately.
Oh! Good to hear.
Have you tested any of the Bunnykins dishes currently available, or any other modern Royal Daulton dishes? My table setting from my wedding gifts (2013-14) is the Gordon Ramsay Maze in light blue. I contacted RD and they claim it is “lead free.” They also say it is illegal to use lead… But your information seems to say that’s only the case for children’s dishes? Thank you for your help!
Yeah – on the case for children’s dishes. Here’s the Royal Doulton category on the website… I would say that older than 5 years old could go either way – and even some new stuff might be high lead depending on the colors and design. https://tamararubin.com/category/royal-doulton/
If I were to get emotional about the subject I would say the company is Evil (with a capital E). The fact that there is that song about them in the new Mary Poppins movie makes me sick. They made toxic dishes for babies for a century (? about? more than? I don’t know when they went into production off the top of my head) – and they made no effort to inform the public before shifting to lead free products for babies. They have made no public announcement, initiated no public recall, offered no refunds. It’s disgusting. They should issue a highly public prominent statement – offer refunds and issue a recall even on their decades old products that people may still have in their homes. I think they are close-to-criminal here. I am very upset about this personally as one of the Bunnykins dishes pictured on this website was owned by a friend who died of breast cancer at the beginning of the pandemic. She was not yet 40 years old. She left behind two young children. She used her Bunnykins dishes daily as a child and then was letting her children use the dishes from her childhood (from the 1980s) until I came to her house, tested them and told her to stop using them / to throw them out.
Did Bunnykins cause her breast cancer? I have no idea. Did her aggregate body burden of Lead from her childhood significantly impact the outcome of her breast cancer, leading to her early death? Yes – most likely. Did Bunnykins / Royal Doulton have to make high lead ceramic dishware for children? NO. Could they have used Lead-free glazes? YES. Did they know Lead was toxic at the beginning of the 20th century? YES – I am certain they did. Did they know Lead was toxic when they made my friend’s baby dishes in the 1980s? Yes – absolutely. There was a huge push in the late-1970s to get Lead outlawed in house paint. The toxic impacts of Lead were well known and at the top of the news cycle when these dishes were made (the dishes my friend used every day as a baby.) #KnowBetterDoBetter
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Tamara
Tamara