Here’s the general introduction I provide on a lot of my posts, for those who may be new to my work (or have possibly “stumbled upon” my work – while just casually browsing, or conducting more serious research):
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.
XRF Test results for the ornament pictured
Note: This ornament came in an original vintage/antique box of Shiny Brite ornaments. If you have any additional information about this specific ornament please do comment below.
Pink Ornament
30-second reading
- Lead (Pb): 10 +/- 7 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Bromine (Br): non-detect
- Chromium (Cr): 165 +/- 81 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 657 +/- 63 ppm
- Nickel (Ni): 43 +/- 27 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 34 +/- 12 ppm
- Bismuth (Bi): 11 +/- 7 ppm
- No other metals detected in consumer goods mode.
More details to be posted shortly.
Hi, I have an old set of Shiny Brite ornaments my parents had in the 70s. I haven’t ever used them on our own tree and was debating whether to toss the or repurpose. I see the headline on this post says, “Vintage Shiny Brite (?) Christmas Ornament – Pink Glass Ball: 10 ppm Lead (90 ppm & up is unsafe for kids).” Does that mean that b/c it’s only 10 (well under 90), that’s it’s generally safe? Also, did you happen to test all of the ornaments in the box pictured, or just the pink one?
There are quite a few of these on the site and many are very toxic. Start looking through the examples here https://tamararubin.com/category/christmas-ornaments/