Hey there — I just figured it out! An opportunity for 10 (2!) people to make a difference and get their stuff tested!

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).

Number of spaces left: 2 (Two!)

I’m renting an XRF Instrument for the summer!

Hey there — I just figured it out! (with “it” being: how to quickly raise enough to cover the rental XRF instrument costs for the summer).

All of the stuff reported on the website belongs to one of you — my readers!

If you have been following my work for a long time you know I used to accept boxes of 10 or more things for testing and reporting on the website — but I stopped doing that.
Over the past 18 months or so (with very few exceptions) I have restricted what people send me to a single thing (or two) by invitation (if it is something I have not already tested and published results about on the site).

Too Much Testing To Do – Not Enough XRF Time

I decided I could not take full boxes anymore, because I couldn’t keep up with the workload when people were sending me 10 or 12 things in a box; it had become too much for me to manage at once — especially with my limited access to working/appropriate XRF instruments! (then complicated by the new added challenge of having almost no childcare during the pandemic!)

That’s the main reason – I got really far behind in the testing and reporting…. because (since the Foundation crumbled in 2016…) without the use of a consistent XRF instrument of my own (and without a dedicated child-free office space to work in!), I wasn’t able to keep up with this part of the work. [And on top of that, with the bare-bones $25-per-item-plus-return-postage I have been charging (to keep it affordable for families), it turned out it really wasn’t actually enough to cover the cost of the work I was doing — especially when testing something more complex than a dish.]

But from NOW ON I am going to have access to a working XRF Instrument … non-stop

As you may have read previously on the website, I was able to get support from readers in the form of contributions and then a generous loan to cover the cost of repairing the two new-to-me instruments. I sent the first one in for repair and evaluation a few weeks ago. Given their timeline for evaluating and repairing the instrument I decided it made sense to get a rental instrument while the two new-to-me instruments (gifted to me by a friend last year) are being repaired/ refurbished so I can finally start using them.

Renting an appropriate instrument for consumer goods testing can cost $5,000 to $7,500 a month (which is why I cannot normally cover the cost of a frequent or long-term rental!)- but the manufacturer of my instrument is renting me one at a fairly significant discount (over what one might normally pay) while they are repairing my first instrument. For the duration of the time they are working on restoring my new-to-me instrument(s) the rental amount is “just “$1,500 (+ $240 in shipping.)

Since it may take them 5 weeks or longer to repair the first instrument (when they are finally finished evaluating it – which I guess hasn’t been done yet!) it seemed like a no-brainer to rent an instrument during this time (which may be as long as two months from what I understand!). Renting an instrument also makes sense if folks can chip in to help cover the cost (with the benefit of sending stuff in to be tested) because it will also help me get caught up on all of the not-yet-finished-testing (& reporting) I have had (already-in-progress) for so long (as well as help me finish the baby bottle and glass milk bottle testing work – which no-one has been covering the full cost of otherwise!)

Now that I know I will have a reliable instrument for testing for the next month (+)— and then continuously after that as well, once I get my restored instrument back [AND now that I also know I am not going anywhere out of town for at least a month because of my upcoming surgeries], to help make this happen (to help cover the costs of the rental) I have opened up the limited opportunity for JUST TEN PEOPLE to send in a box of 6 things for $150 (+ return shipping)! Ten people (60 items total) is “just enough” that I can probably get it all done along with my backlog over the next two months. More than that would be too much for me to get done in this short time.

I do not plan to go back to accepting boxes in the future (I will be shifting to a different model for finding the things I report on on the website) — but if you had been wanting to sending me in a box of things for testing,THIS is your last opportunity*! I am only doing this (taking 10 boxes) for this one-time opportunity to help cover the cost of renting the instrument for the summer. If ten people take advantage of this, it will quickly cover the remainder need for the rental, plus a little extra!!!

*subscribers who have been contributing $25 or more monthly in support of this work will still be able to send in a box under that “legacy” agreement.

This is actually a really good deal (to get something done that you didn’t know you wanted done! LOL!)

Did you know there are companies charging a LOT of money to consumers to do this testing for them (since I basically created a market by making people curious!) — and that these companies normally charge $79 PER TEST! …So if you have multiple components of a single item that you want tested, it could cost hundreds of dollars to test “one item” [and certified labs sometimes charge as much as $240 per test, actually!]

With my advocacy – because the costs are shared by so many – I have historically only “charged” $25 per item (as long as the item is not too complex), plus return shipping. The amount folks chip in is not a charge so much (not a fee for service), as a requested donation (and also a contribution of the use of your item to test and include on the site!) to just help cover the costs of the testing that is reported on LeadSafeMama.com.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this special offer, I would still need you to follow my protocol for sending in a single dish for testing (please read the link below with details). I am also going to cap this off at 10 people (and then revert back to not taking boxes anymore, because the goal is to catch up and not fall behind again)… I will update the article at the top with the number of spaces left available, as it fills up. Thank you.