I sent a Letter to Meghan and Harry today. Here’s what I wrote.

I am a full-time environmental activist for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety. I am also mother of acutely Lead poisoned children who have permanent disabilities as a result of their Lead poisoning (the reason I do what I do.) While I am certain you have never heard of me – I am “jazz famous” (very “famous” to a relatively small number of people – lol!) 

 

Here’s a little 11-second video clip from my presentation with Bernie Sanders in Flint in 2016 (I am in the far right of the video in a tie dye t-shirt.) My teenage son made this for fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML2FZNDsXqo

 

I have won two awards from the Federal government for my advocacy work (in 2011 and 2014). More recently, in 2022 I was interviewed for articles with NPR, Cracked.com, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and others and I was an invited guest speaker at Stanford University. This past year my work was also responsible for three Leaded product recalls including TWO Lead-contaminated baby bottles (link). I am currently working on submitting violation notices (in the hopes of generating additional recalls) for 10 more Lead-contaminated baby feeding products this year. I use XRF technology to test for toxicants (heavy metals) in consumer goods. Also perhaps of interest  – in 2022 my website (LeadSafeMama.com / TamaraRubin.com) had nearly 1.8 million unique visitors (with over 5,300,000 unique page views) from over 200 countries (/ locations) per Google Analytics and I run a Facebook support group for parents of Lead poisoned children and others – with over 20,000 members.

 

Here’s the “about” page on my website with more info:

 

Here’s my press page:

 

I was also the parent advocate responsible for finding Lead in fidget spinners in 2017. Here’s that story from CBS This Morning:

 

I am traveling down to California (from my home in Portland, Oregon) in February (to help families of Lead poisoned children) and will be in the Montecito area February 17-18-19 (ish). I was wondering if you might have time to meet with me (a short visit / coffee?) to talk about my projects and ideas to see if there is anything you might like to get involved with or support in some way – to help amplify the message of childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety (we could meet and chat –  just as a casual informational interview of sorts.) If we are able to meet up, I will bring my XRF instrument with me and show you how I test consumer goods for toxicants (including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Arsenic and Antimony.)

 

By way of greater introduction I am sharing (below) the link to my documentary film with you. It is 92 minutes long – has music donated by The Who and Tom Waits (and Maia Sharp, Glen Moore and others) and footage from my 2016 presentation with Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan and footage from my interview with Noam Chomsky. Here’s the link. I know that as parents of young children you will appreciate it as you are the target demographic for the audience of the film. https://tamararubin.com/2023/01/a-link-to-my-film/

 

Because one always googles someone who emails them out of the blue – I will let you know (before you google) that I am suing the State of Oregon in federal court for multiple counts of civil rights violations against me. In 2016 (shortly after my presentation with Bernie in Flint and shortly after I opened for Erin Brockovich here in Portland – see image below) a fraudulent (likely industry-influenced) anonymous complaint was made against me in an apparent effort to destroy my advocacy work, destroy my nonprofit and halt distribution of my film. I was illegally arrested for crimes I did not commit and my award winning nonprofit (which had helped between 10,000 and 20,000 families a year on a shoe string budget for five years) was dismantled. The charges were dropped in full (an exhaustive multi-year IRS audit proved me innocent of the allegations even prior to my illegal arrest) but my nonprofit was destroyed anyway and all funding that might have gone to the distribution of my film has gone to fight for justice in my Federal Civil Rights case. My kids have said that I wouldn’t be a real activist unless I had been arrested on false charges – so there’s that “badge of honor” – but it’s been a rough 7 years. Our case was dismissed by a Trump appointed Federal Judge several months ago (based in large-part on qualified immunity) and we have filed an appeal in the 9th circuit – our opening brief for our appeal is actually due to the courts on February 17th (but I do not need to be present for that – and would rather be doing my work helping families than be in court!) Here’s a link to a recent full summary of my lawsuit if you are curious.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.