Picture of the set, from World Market’s website:
Introduction:
Tamara Rubin is a Federal award winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and childhood Lead poisoning prevention. 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 metallic toxicants (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.
These posts today are placeholders JUST with the XRF data for the item pictured. They will be updated with more details a.s.a.p. All readings are done multiple times to confirm the results for each component before sharing one full set of the readings for the item pictured. This bowl broke in shipping to the customer and she sent me the broken pieces for testing.
Outside brown decorative surface of the bowl:
60-second test
- Lead (Pb): 932 +/- 20 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Bromium (Br): non-detect
- Chromium (Cr): 333 +/- 118 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 2,380 +/- 81 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 263 +/- 32 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 67 +/- 32 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 275 +/- 19 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 10,200 +/- 100 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 19,400 +/- 200 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 622 +/- 12 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 951 +/- 27 ppm
- Platinum (Pt): 134 +/- 27 ppm
- no other metals detected
Inside food surface of the bowl:
60-second test
- Lead (Pb): 5,679 +/- 62 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Bromium (Br): non-detect
- Chromium (Cr): non-detect
- Iron (Fe): 1,126 +/- 57 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 4,068 +/- 58 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 524 +/- 8 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 12 +/- 4 ppm
- Antimony (Sb): 8 +/- 5 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 643 +/- 17 ppm
- no other metals detected
Some additional reading that may be of interest:
- A link discussing the testing methodology used here on this website.
- A menu with buttons to lots of different categories of information that can be found here on this website.
- A link to my documentary feature film on childhood Lead poisoning.
- The short video that shows you how to search this site.
- Things you can test at home with a LeadCheck swab
- Things you really cannot test at home (better tested with XRF technology)
As always, please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for reading and thank you for sharing my posts.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
When I saw this post yesterday, I sent the comapany an email just to see what they would say. They replied very quickly, and for reference, this is what I sent and received from the company regarding the beige pudding bowl version of the Forest pattern I bought a couple years ago.
Hello,
A couple of years ago I purchased a Forest beige pudding bowl from Mason Cash. I have been seeing more discussion of lead in glazes and stoneware bases though, and I was wondering if your products have controls to ensure there is no lead or toxic elements in them? If so, is there any third party testing to certify that? Thank you so much for your time,
Brittney
Dear Brittney,
Thank you for contacting Rayware with your enquiry.
Whilst we are unable to advise all our products to be entirely lead/cadmium free I can advise that any trace would be to minimal and that all our products meet all European and UK standards for metal release.
I can also advise that any products that we supply directly to our stockist in America do not require a proposition 65 label. We hope you find this helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions.
Kind regards,
Customer Service
The Rayware Group
Hi Tamara,
Thank you for all the informative work you are presenting here.
Do you have any comments on the above reply from The Rayware Group? If they meet the CA prop 65 limits, is that sufficient?
I read that all the recent Mason Cash ware uses lead free glaze. Do you know the date of manufacture for the bowls you tested?
I would hate to unnecessarily toss out the bowls I have.
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike – the bows are from this year – 2021.
You can read more about the concern here (prop 65 compliance is not sufficient in my opinion – it is frankly just a labeling standard that companies hide behind and use for greenwashing purposes.)
https://tamararubin.com/topics/does-vintage-and-new-functional-pottery-and-dishware-have-unsafe-levels-of-lead/
Tamara
I spent my online holiday shopping season oohing and aahing over these lovely bowls imagining all the baking I would do in them. My daughter gifted me one and I had immediate plans to fill out the set when I saw your post much to my surprise and disappointment. I have cleared my cupboards of my beloved vintage everything so these were my little reward to myself to replace the old stuff!
Thank you for all of your information!