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 of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).
When tested with an XRF instrument the item pictured here had the following readings:
#1) on the ceramic of the scoop
- Lead (Pb): 237,200 +/- 14,000 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 738 +/- 224 ppm
- Selenium (Se): 255 +/- 124 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 2,400 +/- 212 ppm
#2) on the wood handle of the scoop
- Lead (Pb): non-detect
- Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Barium (Ba): non-detect
- Chromium (Cr): non-detect
- Antimony (Sb): non-detect
- Selenium (Se): non-detect
Thank you for reading and sharing my 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 both test consumer goods and coherently write about them (and also take the time to document each item with photographs).
To this end, in this weekend’s articles, 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, 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, teaching a class, or speaking at a zoom event.
- This is the link to the documentary feature film that 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 the site.
I think that’s it! Let me know if you have any questions about this particular item by commenting here on this article. Thanks again for being here!
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
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