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!

Updated: June 2024
Rates subject to change.

Hello California!

What is a Lead Safe Mama “Healthy Home Consultation?”

First, we want to clarify what it is not.

• A Lead Safe Mama healthy home consultation is not a “Hazard Assessment.“
• We are not associated with a hazard assessor or laboratory — and do not claim to be.
• We do not provide an official report or written summary with our work.
• This work is also not medical advice; I am not a doctor or healthcare provider and we do not work directly with anyone in the medical professions (although it can be complementary to your work with your doctor — especially if you have tested positive for metals in your blood, urine, or hair, and are looking for potential sources of exposure in your daily life and routines).

What it is: It’s a personalized educational experience!

Think of your Lead Safe Mama healthy home consultation as a one-on-one class; it’s an educational opportunity tailored just for you and your family. During our time together we look at your environment (your home, your consumer goods, and how you interact with those things each day) to find potential sources of heavy metal exposure for yourself or other members of your family and suggest safer alternatives for any items of concern. (I often also go to schools and daycare centers with families when looking for hazards that children might be exposed to while away from home.)

In most Lead Safe Mama home consultations we use XRF technology to look for sources of the following metals in your environment:

• Arsenic,
• Cadmium,
• Lead,
• Mercury,
• Antimony,
• Cobalt,
• Barium,
• Tin,
• Nickel,
• & many other metals you may have concerns with.

You are not alone in taking this “class!”

In fact, state health departments, universities, hospitals, and other agencies across the country (including EPA offices!) have hired Tamara Rubin to coordinate and head collaborative community educational presentations for which attendees (including doctors, nurses, teachers, contractors, and others) often get continuing education credits (CEUs) from their local relevant state agency (for example, their local health department) for attending these events and participating in this conversation. This is your opportunity for a class like this — but one that is 100% tailored to your individual needs/ to answer your questions and to look for safer choices for your family.

If you have not yet had a heavy metals urine, blood, or hair test done by your doctor, these tests can be useful tools to have on hand for our visit and we do encourage our families to ask their doctors if a heavy metals panel would be appropriate in their particular situation. Heavy metals panels often are presented as a bar graph, and if there are specific metals that you test positive for (at unsafe levels, as determined by your doctor), we can be on the lookout for sources of those specific metals in your environment. Please read this article, which discusses this type of testing in more detail.

How do you know if Tamara will be in your area during an upcoming travel month?

1. Regular Lead Safe Mama travel months are January, April, and October of each year.
2. Tamara makes additional trips to California (from Oregon) five or six times a year each year.
3. Tamara is also available to come to California fairly last minute if your situation is more urgent and you prefer not to wait for a pre-planned trip.

If you are among the first to book a consultation during January, April, or October (when the schedule is announced — normally about three months in advance of the travel dates), we will build the travel schedule around your visit no matter where you are… So “YES!” We CAN be in your area during one of those months (anywhere in California).  

By planning trips in advance and clustering home consultations (geographically and temporally) we are able to keep costs down for families. For California residents, we will publish additional availability (additional pre-planned trips) on this article as they are scheduled (you may want to bookmark the page and check back periodically for updates).

Check out the links below for more info!

1. Tamara’s background, home consultations, & outreach events rates
2. Phone & zoom consultations 
3. Contribute in support of our work
4. A “Home Consultations” overview
5. A “Community Events” overview

Not all events and consultations involve XRF testing. However, for those that do, here are some additional links with more information:

1. Here’s more about the testing methodologies we use in this work.
2. How many items can be tested during an hour?
3. A list of some items one might want to have tested with an XRF instrument.

How it works

1. How long is a Home Consultation?
   • Home consultations range in length from three to four hours.
   • We currently have a three-hour minimum (because that’s how long it takes to really thoroughly review things in your home and how you interact with them), and a four-hour maximum for Home Consultations.
2. How much does it cost?
   • The 2024/2025 rate for a Lead Safe Mama Home Consultation in California is $3,000 (in most locations in California) for times when we already have a trip schedule to the area. This is a flat-fee for a 3-to-4 hour consultation.
   • If we are not going to be in the area already and need to travel from Portland, Oregon to California specifically to see you, there is also a “Travel Day fee” of $1,500, which includes all of our travel fees to and from your destination. (This brings the total cost for an emergency or last-minute one-on-one consultation with Tamara to $4,500.)
   • If we are traveling to see you from another location in the United States (not from Oregon), two travel days may be required (for example, if we are located on the east coast during the time when you would like to schedule a California consultation). The per-day travel fee is $1,500 in that case — and so the travel fee for your consultation would be $3,000 (for a total consultation fee of $6,000). 
   • NOTE: Rates for small Community Events and large Public Speaking Events vary depending on the scope and complexity of the events and are discussed in detail at this link.
3. Reserve your Home Consultation date:
   • To book a Lead Safe Mama Healthy Home Consultation, a 50% deposit for your total anticipated fee is due up-front to reserve a tentative date. For large Community Events, costs, deposits, and timelines are different.
4. How much of a deposit do I have to pay?
   • Your 50% deposit (to reserve a date for a 3-to-4-hour home consultation in California, depending on the timing) will be $1,500 or $2,250 (in most cases, depending on travel days required).
5. Finalize your date:
   • To finalize your date, the remaining 50% of your home consultation or small event fee is due no later than 30 days prior to your scheduled date.
   • Upon paying your remaining 50%, we will finalize the date with you as well as a time-window for your appointment.
   • If you need a firm date earlier (if 30 days in advance to confirm the final date and time-window is not enough notice for your schedule), feel free to pay your remaining 50% at any time and we will finalize the date then instead.
6. What methods of payment do you accept?
   • We accept Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, or credit card payments processed through PayPal. All payment methods are tracked as income to Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a Portland, Oregon-based and woman-owned small business.
     • Venmo: @TamaraERubin
     • Zelle: 503-702-2708
     • PayPal: TamaraRubin@mac.com
   • Please let us know if you need an invoice.
7. What if I need to cancel?
   • Deposits are fully refundable (per the refund policy, linked at the bottom of each page on the website) if your consultation is canceled for any reason. Here’s the refund policy link.
8. Do you charge for travel?
   • Besides the fee schedule noted above (which accommodates travel costs [rental cars, hotels, opportunity costs for additional time with travel]), with advance booking there is normally no additional/ separate charge for travel costs for consultations during pre-set travel months of January, April, and October each year! 

“But this is so expensive!”

While we understand the cost may be out of reach for many families, at this time, the in-person advocacy work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not yet profitable and we cannot afford to subsidize the costs of our in-person work any more than we already do. 

For the present, if you cannot afford a one-on-one consultation but are interested in participating in the work (and have questions you need answered), this website (TamaraRubin.com/ LeadSafeMama.com) is a free available resource (with thousands of pages of information) and you may also want to keep your eyes open (sign up for our newsletter here) for Lead Safe Mama FREE public Community Events in your area — normally these are sponsored and hosted by local health departments, educational institutions, hospitals, etc. with participation for the public (including XRF testing of consumer goods) offered free of charge at most events.  

If you want to discuss the possibility of your local health department (hospital, college, or medical clinic/ doctor’s office) sponsoring a free public event, please be in touch. Here’s an overview of elements that might be included in those events: Link.