Vintage Libbey glass with Queen Anne Lace pattern: 59,000 ppm Lead + 1,036 ppm Cadmium in the painted decorations.

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. To read more about the testing methodology employed for the test results reported on this blog, please click this link.

July 18, 2021 – Sunday

XRF test results on the white painted decoration of glass
Tested multiple times to confirm the results – 6o-seconds minimum per test

Lead (Pb): 59,000 +/- 600 ppm
Cadmium (Cd): 1,036 +/- 20 ppm
Mercury (Hg): 88 +/- 14 ppm
Zinc (Zn): 48 +/- 8 ppm
Titanium (Ti): 26,100 +/- 700 ppm
Indium (In): 7 +/- 5 ppm
Platinum (Pt): 625 +/- 56 ppm

XRF test results on the green painted decoration of glass
Tested multiple times to confirm the results – 6o-seconds minimum per test

Lead (Pb): 38,700 +/- 400 ppm
Cadmium (Cd): 1,031 +/- 17 ppm
Cobalt (Co): 383 +/- 27 ppm
Nickel (Ni): 1,730 +/- 44 ppm
Zinc (Zn): 1,790 +/- 32 ppm
Titanium (Ti): 13,700 +/- 500 ppm
Indium (In): 9 +/- 4 ppm
Antimony (Sb): 293 +/- 10 ppm
Platinum (Pt): 366 +/- 43 ppm

On the clear (unpainted) bottom of the glass

Iron (Fe): 216 +/- 38 ppm

Some additional reading that might be of interest:

Thanks for reading. Thank you for sharing my posts. As always – 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 (which may not be right away – but I will try!)

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama