April, May, June, July, August, September… How toxic is YOUR baseball glove?! Vintage ball gloves can have unsafe levels of Lead!
For those new to the Lead Safe Mama 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 four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!
July 14, 2021 — Wednesday
XRF test results for the 1983 Louisville Slugger Super Slugger II leather baseball glove pictured in this article:
#1.) Dark orange piping on edge of the glove
(possibly vinyl trim) — 60-second test
- Lead (Pb): 7,210 +/- 72 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 840 +/- 68 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 3,712 +/- 84 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 120 +/- 18 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 109 +/- 11 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 72 +/- 8 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 298 +/- 23 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 360,000 ppm
#2.) Horizontal straps of “ball net” part on glove
Leather — 60-second test
- Lead (Pb): 4 +/- 2 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): 10 +/- 3 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 12 +/- 1 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 15,900 +/- 100 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 748 +/- 24 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 47 +/- 6 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 265 +/- 7 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 94 +/- 34 ppm
#3.) Fingers of glove — main part of glove
Leather — 60-second test
- Lead (Pb): 661 +/- 10 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): 7 +/- 3 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 57 +/- 2 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 15,300 +/- 100 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 188 +/- 15 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 107 +/- 7 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 116 +/- 5 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 59 +/- 32 ppm
#4.) Rawhide stitching
Leather — 60-second test
- Lead (Pb): 1,204 +/- 14 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 19 +/- 4 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 44 +/- 2 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 2,784 +/- 48 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 658 +/- 18 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 134 +/- 6 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 29 +/- 3 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 371 +/- 45 ppm
#5.) Inside of the glove (where the child’s hand goes)
Leather — 60-second test
Note: The second reading of inside the glove did not show trace Arsenic above 4 ppm (further testing for arsenic is warranted).
- Lead (Pb): 45 +/- 3 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): 7 +/- 3 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 38 +/- 2 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 11,700 +/- 100 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 980 +/- 26 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 22 +/- 6 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 188 +/- 8 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 299 +/- 8 ppm
- Arsenic (As): 6 +/- 2 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 128 +/- 65 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 86 +/- 34 ppm
How much Lead is “too much” Lead?
For context, the amount of Lead considered unsafe in an item intended for use by children is anything 90 ppm Lead or higher in the paint, glaze, or coating of an item or anything 100 ppm Lead or higher in the substrate. Vintage baseball gloves often have unsafe levels of Lead. (What is vintage? What’s antique? How do I know the difference?) New baseball gloves (especially those expressly sold as items intended for use by children) should be Lead-free in all components. Please do not let your children use vintage ball gloves — purchase a new one instead. Here’s an affiliate link to a new ball glove that should be Lead-free: https://amzn.to/3z2Nd4D.
Some additional reading that may be of interest:
- What can I test with a home test kit?
- Can I send you an item to test?
- How can I best use this website to search for products you have in your home (video)?
As always, thank you for reading and sharing this work. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them personally as soon as I have a moment.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
*Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on one of our links, Lead Safe Mama, LLC may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you!
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Thank you! My kiddo was using my old baseball glove from when I was a kid. It is definitely vintage but not quite antique 😉 Because it is leather, lead would have never crossed my mind! Wish I had stumbled on this post in April at the beginning of the season but better late than never. That’s how this lead stuff seems to work with us! Again thank you for the revelation!
Thank you – glad you found it!
I believe this glove is only from 1983. I am not sure what year they stopped using Lead to tan / color / preserve the leather. I have to test more to figure that one out!
Tamara
I just bought my six-year-old son a new Rawlings leather baseball glove for his upcoming season. The tag has a Prop 65 warning label. Does that mean that they’re still using lead to tan the leather? Or some other cancer causing chemical is present, not necessarily lead?
Generally Chromium in the modern gloves / leather products.