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 six 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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Published: May 20, 2022
Updated: April 2, 2023
“WHY?!”
“Why do you do this consumer goods testing?”
“Why can’t I do it at home?”
So — actually — that’s EXACTLY why I do it! Because you cannot do this yourself at home and I want YOU to have access to reliable science-based information to help you make informed choices, informed choices that will help you protect your family from exposure to toxicants (specifically heavy metals) in your home.
Most home test kits, which are based on reactive-agent testing technology, are not reliable for testing consumer goods: That technology was designed for testing paint. Period.
- Since most people cannot afford an appropriate scientific instrument (I.e. one based on X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry Analysis) that costs between $35,000 and $50,000 new (with all of the software modules necessary for testing consumer goods installed) and also cannot take the time, incurring the additional expenses, to register the instrument and undergo the required training to become certified for operating the instrument. I do this testing so YOU don’t HAVE to.
- I do this testing so everyone can have reliable, independent SCIENCE–based (rather than industry-influenced/ adulterated, and politically-compromised/ filtered/ “spin-doctored”) information available to you — FREE — to help you make safer choices for your family.
There are currently over 3,500 pages, articles, and posts with information here on the Lead Safe Mama, LLC website. This information is all freely available (not behind a paywall), and easily searchable (just watch the little video linked below showing you how to efficiently search the website)!
But I cannot find my item!
- If the exact product you are curious about, or for which you’d like to see test results, is not here on the website (yet!), you can most likely find something similar — along with a discussion of why (or why not) it is likely a good choice for your family.
- Start your search by checking out the menu for the website linked at the top of every page on LeadSafeMama.com — and also linked via the pink and white “Website Menu” button below. The Website Menu is a great place to begin exploring our information database by categories here on LeadSafeMama.com/TamaraRubin.com!
- You can also put short/ simple general keyword phrases into the search bar at the top of any page to begin your search — like “white china,” “blue glass,” “water bottle,” or ‘baby food.”
- You can extrapolate through comparison (in most cases) if the same considerations apply to the product you are curious about — based on the brand or age, materials, and color of the item tested.
One specific example:
- If you look up, say, Mikasa china (using the search bar at the top of any page of this website or by clicking the “Mikasa” button in the Website Menu) but cannot find your EXACT pattern or style, you can likely extrapolate whether YOUR pattern likely has unsafe levels of Lead (or whether it is likely Lead-free or Lead-safe), by comparing the colors of the glaze, the style of the dish, the pattern of your dish, the age of your dish, etc. to the examples available here on the website.
- In the case of dishes specifically, a really good way to compare is by looking at all of the BACK MARKINGS (the logo) for the dishes on the website (there are photos of the back and front of the dish in nearly every article). See if there is a logo that is SIMILAR (font, colors, word-choice, time and place of manufacture, etc.) to the example you are curious about. IF the back markings are similar, then the Lead levels are likely to be very similar.
That’s it.
That’s why…
To make this information FREELY AVAILABLE — to make the SCIENCE freely available — to the general public, because the home test kits consumers can buy are only for testing house paint, and as such, simply DO NOT WORK (are neither appropriate nor reliable) for testing most (nearly all) consumer goods. Check out the links below for more info.
IF you are still not satisfied (after searching this website) in terms of your interest in knowing the exact test results for the specific item you own and use (often the case with heirlooms and vintage items), you can participate in the ongoing consumer goods testing and searchable datastore-building work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC by sending your item in for testing (and reporting on this website).
— Here’s the link telling you how to do that! —
Some additional reading that may be of interest to you:
- Here’s a video detailing how to efficiently search the website.
- Here’s the article discussing home test kits on dishes.
- Here’s the article discussing using home test kits for toys.
- Here’s the article discussing the types of items you *may* be able to test with a home test kit.
- Here’s the article discussing items that are better tested with an XRF Instrument or other scientific testing.
- Here’s the article discussing the testing methodologies employed for the results we report on this website.
- Here’s the article discussing the problems in having a home inspector test consumer goods (when they don’t have the appropriate type of XRF instrument and software for this testing).
Keep up the good work!!!
Thank you!