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).
When tested with an XRF instrument, this Greenbrier International ceramic Royal Norfolk blue carnival glass bottle (with a golden leaf ornament accent, purchased at a Dollar Tree store in 2020) had the following readings:
On the blue iridescent glass:
60-second test
- Barium (Ba): 395 +/- 37 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 1,280 +/- 78 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 87 +/- 42 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 338 +/- 145 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 471 +/ – 130 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 556 +/- 165 ppm
On the golden colored decorative metal leaf ornament:
60-second test
- Cadmium (Cd): 92 +/- 39 ppm
- Niobium (Nb): 1,859 +/- 219 ppm
- Bismuth (Bi): 1,504 +/- 178 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 275,500 +/- 27,000 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 418,700 +/- 37,000 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 58,900 +/- 3,200 ppm
Some additional reading:
- To see more items from the Dollar Store that I have tested, click here.
- To see more glass items I have tested, click here.
- To see more carnival glass items I have tested, click here.
- To see more iridescent glass items I have tested, click here.
- To read more about the type of testing I do, click here.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading and for sharing this work.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
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