Letter to the owners of the Bindle Bottles company with “next step” instructions

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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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Wednesday – January 4, 2023

Dear owners of Bindle Bottle,

It’s after 1:30 a.m. here but I wanted to send you a quick note because I expect you will be inundated with emails from concerned customers by the morning (before I have a chance to check my email or my social media accounts).

I think it is important for you to understand who I am and what I do. I am not “just a blogger” – I am a full-time environmental activist for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety. I have won two awards from the federal government for my advocacy work and my collaborative work (with the Lead Safe Mama community which numbered nearly 1.8 million people last year) was responsible for three Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls in 2022 alone. I share this because it is important that you take this issue seriously.

Separately, your customers also probably have a significant overlap with Lead Safe Mama’s readership. They want to see you do the right thing. The right thing does not include (as many companies do) trying to diminish the science I use in my work or diminish the import of my findings. The right thing does not include calling lawyers and asking them to send a threatening letter to me demanding I take my results down (many companies have done that over the years and it always backfires).

Doing the right thing includes the following steps:

1. Read the full article I posted earlier tonight about the concern. Here’s the link.
2. Watch my documentary feature film (92 minutes). It’s a crash course on the issue and has information vital to getting you up to speed about the mess that has been created with the oversight of encouraging people to eat food directly out of your Lead contaminated bottles. Here’s the link.
3. Immediately remove (from your social media and your website) all images that even suggest it is safe to put food or beverages in the bottom cap or bottom compartment of your Bindle Bottles. You may want to also remove any of the images of the product with snacks next to them as well as they allude to the fact that they can be used with snacks even though the image might not actually show that. Taking this immediate action will help reduce your liability and demonstrate to your customers that you are taking this issue seriously.
4. Issue a public statement about the finding of Lead in your bottles. Please DO NOT make this statement dismissive by stating it is a “small amount” of Lead. Given the level of toxicity that is imparted by even a microscopic amount of Lead, the amount of Lead in your bottles is by NO MEANS a small amount of Lead.
5. Cease selling the bottles immediately (take down the sales function of your website and take down any other sales portals for your products. Amazon? Kickstarter?).
6. Talk to a lawyer about the potential for suing your supplier/manufacturer overseas as it seems clear you were not aware that you were selling Lead-contaminated bottles.
7. Talk to your lawyer about language for issuing a public voluntary recall statement (this should be prominently displayed on the home page of your website along with a place where customers can request a refund, no questions asked).
8. NOTE: I would also not continue to sell these for non-food use storage in the compartments as there is also the issue of transference of Lead to items like lipstick, chapstick, and other items you suggest might be appropriate to put in the compartments. 
9. Find a new supplier to make your bottles with a Lead-free sealing dot. (Talk to Hydroflask, they managed to do it after I called them out on the issue back in 2011/2012).
10. Please do read all of the linked additional articles and posts in my earlier article tonight – including the 2018 Oprah piece where I warned that I expected your bottles were likely contaminated with Lead.
11. Let me know if you have any questions. I will be as helpful as I can. I do not bite. I am friendly. This is a VERY SERIOUS ISSUE, however.
12. I will be publishing copies of the violation reports I am filing for your products here as soon as they have been filed and I will also email those links to you when they are up on the website.

You can get to the other side of this but it is going to be uncomfortable and you need to (first and foremost) do right by your customers. Sorry to be brief but I have a 9 a.m. meeting and I have to get some sleep.

Tamara Rubin
Owner – Lead Safe Mama, LLC
LeadSafeMama.com
Mother of acutely Lead-poisoned children

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For those new to this website

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. Tamara’s sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in August of 2005. 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. This year [2022], her work was also responsible for three CPSC product recalls — the Jumping Jumperoo recall (June 2022); the Lead painted NUK baby bottle recall (July 2022); and the Leaded Green Sprouts Insulated Stainless Steel Baby Bottles (November 2022) — and she was recently featured in an NPR story about Lead in consumer goods (August 2022); The Guardian (December 2022); and an upcoming article in Consumer Reports (2023). Tamara uses XRF testing (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 and reported on. Please click through to this link to learn more about the testing methodology used for the test results discussed and reported on this website.