Vintage composite “wood look” American Tempo Stainless (Made in Japan) cutlery: As high as as 13,700 ppm Lead in the “wood” of the handle

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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). All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Items are tested multiple times to confirm the test results for each component tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).

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Reading #1) Metal Blade of Knife
60-second reading
Stainless Steel — 416

• Lead (Pb): non-detect
• Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Bromine (Br): 24 +/- 6 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): 132,600 +/- 400 ppm
• Vanadium (V): 439 +/- 89 ppm
• Manganese (Mn): 5,237 +/- 308 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 856,900 +/- 700 ppm
• Nickel (Ni): 2,752 +/- 143 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 525 +/- 63 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 41 +/- 21 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 507 +/- 123 ppm
• Molybdenum (Mo): 758 +/- 39 ppm
• Tin (Sn): 45 +/- 11 ppm
• Antimony (Sb): 26 +/- 15 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 97 +/- 40 ppm
• No other metals were detected in consumer goods mode.

Reading #2) “Wood” of Handle on Knife
60-second reading

• Lead (Pb): 13,700 +/- 100 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
• Mercury (Hg): non-detect
• Bromine (Br): 8 +/- 1 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): 2,305 +/- 117 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 5,713 +/- 92 ppm
• Copper (Cu): 25 +/- 8 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 284 +/- 10 ppm
• Titanium (Ti): 4,635 +/- 381 ppm
• Nb: 518 +/- 8 ppm
• Indium (In): 10 +/- 3 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 21 +/- 12 ppm
• Tungsten (W): 119 +/- 20 ppm
• No other metals were detected in consumer goods mode.

Reading #3) Handle of Spoon

• Lead (Pb): 2,642 +/- 57 ppm

Reading #4) Handle of Large Fork

• Lead (Pb): 6,740 +/- 119 ppm

Reading #5) Handle of Small Fork

• Lead (Pb): non-detect!

Stay tuned — I will update these results with more info shortly.