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).
#1) Food surface of the dish (red flower):
- Lead (Pb): 67,700 +/- 1,900 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 5,126 +/- 308 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 2,228 +/- 98 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 7,319 +/- 351 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 3,557 +/- 164 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 748 +/- 178 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 813 +/- 135 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,732 +/- 230 ppm
#2) Food surface of dish (plain white):
- Lead (Pb): 67,200 +/- 1,700 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 4,901 +/- 250 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 2,341 +/- 90 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 4,178 +/- 161 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 965 +/- 165 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 801 +/- 131 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,529 +/- 213 ppm
#3) Food surface of dish (green leaves):
- Lead (Pb): 68,800 +/- 1,800 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 4,761 +/- 263 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 3,744 +/- 149 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 3,322 +/- 148 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 265 +/- 92 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 878 +/- 174 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 830 +/- 131 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,461 +/- 206 ppm
#4) Food surface of dish (blue design):
- Lead (Pb): 63,200 +/- 1,900 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 4,484 +/- 273 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 2,056 +/- 95 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 3,798 +/- 180 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 4,088 +/- 274 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 985 +/- 197 ppm
#5) Back of dish (area with no design or logo):
- Lead (Pb): 41,600 +/- 900 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 3,603 +/- 162 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 3,512 +/- 131 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,655 +/- 180 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 683 +/- 111 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,523 +/- 190 ppm
Thank you for reading and sharing our articles!
This piece was published the weekend of June 4-6, 2021
With the articles I am writing this weekend, I am doing my best to write up and publish as many test result sets as possible as quickly as possible (because I am over a YEAR behind in my writing as a result of having had absolutely no childcare for most of the pandemic [no childcare since about two weeks before the pandemic actually… as my kids were already out sick with various illnesses when the pandemic started])!
Yup, that’s right — some people have been waiting (ever so patiently) for more than a year for the test results for their items because of the impact the pandemic has had on my ability to test consumer goods, coherently write about them, and also take the time to document each item with photographs.
To this end — in the posts this weekend — I am simply including photos of the items tested along with the XRF test results and will not be writing more specifically about each of these products, like I usually do, at this time (in the interest of getting as much information out to my readers as quickly as possible).
THAT SAID if you are new here, below are EIGHT LINKS with some important background information:
- This link discusses the testing I report on here on the website.
- This link has a short video that shows you how to efficiently search the more than 3,000 articles and pages here on the Lead Safe Mama website.
- This link has info about my background as well as rates to hire me for an event, a private home consultation, or as a consultant.
- This link has information about my October United States travel schedule and my current calendar for scheduling in-person home consultations with me this year.
- This link has information about hiring me for a zoom consult, to teach a class, or be a speaker at a zoom event.
- This is the link to the documentary feature film I directed and produced on childhood Lead poisoning. I encourage you to watch it if you have not yet seen it. It is 92 minutes, so grab some popcorn… it is up on YouTube free of charge.
- This is the link to our new “Shop Lead Safe Mama” website — which lists only products (in various categories) that we have found to be consistently Lead-free (when tested with an XRF instrument).
- This is the link that explains how to have something of yours tested with the test results reported here on LeadSafeMama.com.
I think that’s it! Let me know if you have any questions about this particular item by commenting here at the end of this piece. Thanks again for being here!
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Hello I’m a ceramicist and I’m curious what your thoughts on encapsulated cadmium. Orange colour in glaze comes from to main elements uranium (banned in glaze in the USA since the 80s but still used as a yellow colouring agent in Czech glass.) And cadmium. But in the late 90s someone came up with the idea to put a zirconium shell around the cadmium to make it harder for the body to absorb.
I still avoid using orange on kids items and food vessels Also I make sure to buy lead free glazes from reputable sellers or make my own so I can monitor what goes in.