Every grandmother’s cheese slicer (apparently! #AmIRight?): 4,159 ppm Lead… Was this on your holiday table?

  

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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!

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Vintage Cheese Slicer XRF Test Results

Reading #1) Metal handle of cheese slicer
60-second reading

• Lead (Pb): 4,159 +/- 69 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 75 +/- 5 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Barium (Ba): non-detect
• Chromium (Cr): 503 +/- 93 ppm
• Manganese (Mn): 1,632 +/- 85 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 13,800 +/- 200 ppm
• Nickel (Ni): 1,881 +/- 50 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 29,900 +/- 400 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 61,400 +/- 700 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 849 +/- 17 ppm
• Antimony (Sb): 127 +/- 9 ppm
• Platinum (Pt): 97 +/- 64 ppm
• Aluminum Substrate: No other metals were detected in consumer goods mode.

For context: 90 ppm Lead (& up) is considered unsafe and illegal in the surface paint, glaze, or coating of a newly manufactured item intended for use by children. Dishware and kitchenware items (like this) are not currently (and never were) regulated for total Lead content (as detectable with an XRF Instrument).

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Reading #2) Metal roller of cheese slicer
30-second reading

• Lead (Pb): 208 +/- 15 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 22 +/- 4 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Barium (Ba): non-detect
• Chromium (Cr): 1,901 +/- 259 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 10,800 +/- 300 ppm
• Nickel (Ni): 206 +/- 56 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 1,634 +/- 71 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 722 +/- 37 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 1,431 +/- 711 ppm
• Nb: 350 +/- 16 ppm
• Indium (In): 15 +/- 6 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 54 +/- 7 ppm
• Antimony (Sb): 21 +/- 10 ppm
• Platinum (Pt): 249 +/- 38 ppm
• Aluminum Substrate: No other metals were detected in consumer goods mode.

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Reading #3) Screw on roller of cheese slicer
30-second reading

• Lead (Pb): 3,666 +/- 176 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): 79 +/- 13 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Barium (Ba): non-detect
• Chromium (Cr): 19,100 +/- 300 ppm
• Manganese (Mn): 4,252 +/- 255 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 551,500 +/- 13,000 ppm
• Nickel (Ni): 8,845 +/- 411 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 33,900 +/- 1,400 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 84,400 +/- 3,700 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 442 +/- 245 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 888 +/- 50 ppm
• Antimony (Sb): 175 +/- 28 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 225 +/- 65 ppm
• Aluminum Substrate: No other metals were detected in consumer goods mode.

The test results reported here on the Lead Safe Mama website are science-based, replicable, and accurate. We test components multiple times to confirm the test results before reporting them here. One full set of test results is reported for each component tested. 

Please do not use any vintage kitchenware unless it has been independently tested and proven to be safe for use with food.

I will update this article with more info and related links shortly. In the meantime, for links to safer choices in cookware, please click the “Shop Lead Safe Mama” graphic (in pink!) — located at the top of each page on the website — to find our new sister site, which has lots of options for safer (and specifically Lead-free) choices for your home.

Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing this work. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do do my best to answer them personally as soon as I have a moment, which (granted) may not be right away!

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Owner
Lead Safe Mama, LLC