US-ION 7.5 inch Iron Skillet by SolidTeknics: 99.54% Iron when tested with an XRF instrument. Click to read full details.

Published: January 15, 2021

Introduction to Tamara Rubin
(for those new to this website!)

Tamara Rubin lives in Portland, Oregon and is a child health advocate, author, documentary filmmaker, and mother of four sons. Her young men are now 24, 18, 15, and 12. She has won multiple national awards for her Lead-poisoning prevention advocacy work (including two from U.S. government agencies). In 2020 she had more than 1.165 million unique individual readers visit her #LeadSafeMama blog – from more than 200 countries (per Google Analytics) around the world!

It is with the help, support, and participation of these readers that she conducts and reports on independent testing of consumer goods for toxicants (Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, and Antimony), using high-accuracy X-Ray Fluoresence analysis (read more about that here). She goes by #LeadSafeMama on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and has over 2,700 separate posts of information (mostly consumer goods test results) on her blog here at LeadSafeMama.com. 

Tamara’s advocacy work has been mentioned in print in The New York Times; the New York Post; Mother Jones; Parents Magazine; Vice.com; MNN.com; TruthOut; WebMD; the Huffington Post,;USA Today; Grok Nation, and more (too many outlets to list!) – and in other media (T.V. and radio), on the Today Show; Kids in the House; Al Jazeera English; The Voice of Russia; CBS This Morning, and through news stories on CBS; ABC; NBC, and even Fox News – as well as in countless podcasts and other interviews.

Continue reading below the images.

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January 15, 2021 – Friday

XRF testing for the US-ION 7.5 inch Iron Skillet by SolidTeknics pictured on this post.
3-minute test (180 seconds)

• Bismuth (Bi): 43 +/- 16 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 79 +/- 23 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 244 +/- 105 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 995,400 +/- 800 ppm
• Manganese (Mn): 3,383 +/- 251 ppm
• Non Detect for: Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Barium, Chromium, Antimony, Selenium

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The above XRF test results are science-based and replicable.

As with all results shared on this blog, testing is done for a minimum of 60-seconds (unless otherwise noted), and done multiple times to confirm the results of the testing. As with most bare, uncoated cast iron pans – the set of test results for this particular pan are excellent from a toxicant perspective. No Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic or Antimony found! As a rule I always recommend cooking with a mixture of three specific types of pans (see details below) so that no one particular pan influences your body burden of any kind of metal. In this mixture I recommend including only the following three choices to keep your kitchen as safe (and non-toxic as possible):

1. Plain, uncoated iron pans like this one (no enamels, coatings, or decorative elements made of other metals or materials): https://shrsl.com/3exdv
2. Modern clear glass pans (like new offerings for clear glass Pyrex or Duralex brand dishes for baking and roasting). Here’s a good example on Amazon: https://amzn.to/38M7hxV
3. and finally… High quality stainless steel pans – again with no non-stainless decorative elements (specifically look for products with no painted logos or markings on glass elements – like lids, no coatings like enamel, and no elements [like handles or knobs or connection points] made of other metals, plastics, silicone or rubber). If you know you are either allergic or sensitive to Nickel, low-nickel stainless steel options are available (SolidTeknics and Ikea each have low-Nickel options – at different price points.) Plead do note though that even “NoNi” (“Nickel free”) labeled stainless steel may still have low levels of Nickel (although the levels are considerably lower than typical stainless steel.)

This brand (SolidTeknics) produces several different styles of high quality pans (both in low-nickel stainless steel and in iron – like the pan pictured). Here’s the Lead Safe Mama affiliate link to their shop (10% of what you spend using this link will be contributed back to Lead Safe Mama, LLC by Solidteknics – in support of our independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work!): https://shrsl.com/3exdv

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Is this a good pan? From a functional perspective?

I have not yet used this pan, but gave it to my son today (to use in his college apartment – where he and his roommates are doing quite a lot of home cooking because of the pandemic) and as soon as he has used it a bit I will report back on his experience with it here. His roommate was excited to see that there were seasoning instructions included with the pan (you can see those on one of the images at the bottom of the post.) One thing I really love about this product is the fact that the markings on the bottom include the production year and month. This is an incredibly valuable piece of information for a company to provide on ANY product (for countless reasons) and that they chose to do this (without being required to do so) really sets their product apart from others.

Thank you for reading and for sharing these posts. I am an independent consumer goods advocate and report only XRF testing of consumer goods on this blog (not leach testing). To read more about the test results and testing methodology shared here, click on this link.  I will do my best to peronsally answer questions posted on this website, however with more than 1.165 million readers in the past year alone – it may take a while! (so please be patient.)

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Some additional reading for those interested:

• More products from this company that I have tested.
• More pots & pans that I have tested.
• Stainless steel cookware I have tested.
• What is stainless steel? That is explained here.
• Cast iron pans I have tested.
• My overview post about cast iron & related Lead-concerns.
• This is a post that has a video explaining how best to navigate the more than 2,700 posts and pages here on the Lead Safe Mama website (worth checking out, I promise you!)
• My overview post about the concern for Lead in dishes (& cookware).

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Owner – Lead Safe Mama, LLC

Solidteknics links are affiliate links (as of 3/6/2022). If you click on one of our Solidteknics affiliate links and then make a purchase on their website, they will send us 10% of what you spend – at no extra cost to you. Thank you to YOU and to SOLIDTEKNICS for supporting our work in this way. Amazon links are also affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on one of these links I may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you.

Click the image below to see it full size
& to read the seasoning instructions. 
(& please scroll down for additional images of this pan.