Introduction
Tamara Rubin is an independent advocate for consumer goods safety and she is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. 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. She uses XRF testing (a scientific method used by the Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for contaminants including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury and Arsenic.
XRF Test results for the dish pictured here…
#1) Center of food surface of dish – on blue of design
- Lead (Pb): 11,200 +/- 200 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,827 +/- 79 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 598 +/- 162 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 4,246 +/- 103 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 61 +/- 15 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 7,497 +/- 205 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 138 +/- 34 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 16,500 +/- 500 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,209 +/- 139 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 991 +/- 135 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 2,134 +/- 230 ppm
#2) Center of food surface of dish – on blue of design, second test
- Lead (Pb): 15,500 +/- 300 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,963 +/- 92 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 750 +/- 172 ppm
- Silver (Ag): 13 +/- 6 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 4,160 +/- 112 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 116 +/- 18 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 9,883 +/- 276 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 88 +/- 35 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 21,100 +/- 143 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,092 +/- 143 ppm
- Vanadium (V): 688 +/- 123 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,675 +/- 216 ppm
#3) Focus on white glazed background on front of dish
- Lead (Pb): 379 +/- 25 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,672 +/- 77 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 4,682 +/- 118 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 292 +/- 35 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 140 +/- 38 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,120 +/- 167 ppm
#4) Focus on white glazed background on back of dish
- Lead (Pb): 40 +/- 13 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,448 +/- 74 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 4,080 +/- 109 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 248 +/- 34 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 132 +/- 39 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 1,013 +/- 169 ppm
#5) Black back mark / logo on dish
- Lead (Pb): 1,525 +/- 58 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 1,678 +/- 83 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 2,245 +/- 510 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 4,737 +/- 129 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 292 +/- 37 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 141 +/- 41 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 166 +/- 72 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 589 +/- 113 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 2,426 +/- 235 ppm
Wow!! Cannot believe these results I am SO glad I sent this for testing. I was told by THREE different pottery barn associates that these plates were lead FREE. I am boycotting pottery barn. Thank you, Tamara for your amazing work in ensuring we know the real truth of lead levels in our home products 🙂
Oh no. These have been the family dishes for a decade. I wish your work would go mainstream so these stores would stop selling these products.
Thank you.
Can you please explain what this means. That it has lead on the surface? Or when you pulverized it to do the test it had lead. When you Put hot food on these plates the food is now contaminated with lead? I think I am going through the stages of grief here. I have a large collection of these plates. I even imported some of this brand’s (anfora) plates to match this set. How do you not get overwhelmed, Tamara? Im so so sad. These were so expensive too. And my collection is so big u_u
Hi Denise, I bookmarked this discussion because the same thing happened to me. The plates are the same as ones I’ve seen in Mexico and I have a huge set I’ve put into storage. I plan to hang a few on the wall. I may break some of them into pieces and make a mosaic art piece out of them. I understand the grief. Since having some dishes tested by Tamara I have shifted how I look at the dishware I use, and value the non-food-touching ceramics I have like vases and planters. And I look for nice table linens, and stick to boring white plates in nice shapes.