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 2009, Tamara has been conducting XRF testing (a scientific testing method) using the exact instrumentation employed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic).
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for 5 product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Items that Lead Safe Mama, LLC reports on are tested multiple times to confirm the results published (for each component tested).
• Recent notable press… There has been too much to mention already in 2024! Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!

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October 3, 2023 — Tuesday

Yesterday I did a training for the City of Columbus (Ohio) Department of Public Health staff. The training was specifically an opportunity for me to teach the staff of the City’s Department of Public Health about the concern for Lead in consumer goods — with a focus on consumer goods that might contribute to persistent elevated Blood Lead Levels (BLLs) in children at lower levels (in the BLL range of 2 to 5 micrograms of Lead per deciliter of blood).

In that presentation, I shared many examples of Lead-contaminated baby bottles. One of the examples of Lead-contaminated baby bottles I shared was a Lead-contaminated Pura Kiki Insulated Stainless Steel Baby Bottle (purchased in 2018 — to have on hand as evidence for just this sort of eventuality — and still in “new condition,” in the original box [with the Made Safe Certification on the label], showing how the bottom popped off and exposed a significant amount of Lead).

During the training (which was also specifically training for using XRF instrumentation to test for hazards in consumer goods), one of the participants used his XRF instrument to test the bottle (which I had passed around the room so participants could examine it closely) and he (as anticipated) came up with reading in the range of 500,000 to 600,000 ppm Lead (50 to 60% Lead) in the exposed “sealing dot” in the center of the bottom of the bottle. You can see what a sealing dot looks like here on this link if you are unfamiliar with the concern.

It was sort of ironic then (and a bit amusing actually — largely because I have developed an odd sense of humor over the years, after having received so many threats from companies) that TODAY (of all days) I opened my email and received a CEASE AND DESIST letter from Pura Stainless’s attorneys in response to my August 2023 filing of a violation report with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (for the Lead-contaminated version of these products that were sold through at least early 2018). You can read their cease and desist letter below, followed by my initial response. I have also shared my second (and third) email response(s) to them after — just scroll down — some follow-up thoughts I had from writing the first response.

It is particularly amusing to me (I am always sort of amused by these corporate attempts at denying facts, and asking me to retract fact-based statements on my website) that this letter was sent this week — the first week of National Lead Poisoning Prevention Month. WAY TO GO PURA — denying culpability for a Lead-contaminated product that is still in use and in the hands of children today (and was never recalled) during Lead Poisoning Prevention Month takes a certain amount of “chutzpah” (for lack of a better word to use in mixed company!).

In case you are new to this concern, here’s the link to the CPSC violation report that I filed, which covers the issue in detail.

Tamara Rubin
Owner
Lead Safe Mama, LLC

If you would like to contribute to my legal defense fund so I can keep fighting these corporate bad actors, here’s the Lead Safe Mama GoFundMe link. Thank you!

The full subject line of their cover email (which is shown in a screenshot below) is: “Cease and Desist Letter re False and Misleading Statements About Pura Stainless, LLC Contained Media Posts by “Lead Safe Mama, LLC” – Letter from Bradley Chapin dated October 3, 2023”

Their Cover Email To Me
Scroll down for the full attached letter & my initial response

Their attached Cease & Desist letter is below
Full PDF can be found at this link
Scroll down for my initial response
& my second response

Here’s a screenshot of my initial response to this letter (when I first received it). My second response is below that (along with a text version of the second response with a few minor typos corrected for readability), and I will include my third response shortly here as well.

To read the response below (my second response to Pura’s attorneys) click the image to see it full size — or keep scrolling to read a text version (with minor typos corrected for readability). My third response is below this, too.

Text of the above letter (my second response to the legal team for Pura Stainless)
minor typos corrected for readability (correct typos are noted in red). Keep scrolling down to read my THIRD response to them tonight (below this one).

P.S. The fact of the matter is that Pura never issued a recall for these Lead-contaminated products and continued to sell them long after they were aware of the lead contamination in their products. 

In 2022 a similar product was recalled by the CPSC (the Green Sprouts Insulated Stainless Baby Bottle). The presence of a high amount of Lead in the substrate, combined with the potential for product failure (in even one instance), was sufficient for the violation notice to be converted into a public recall for the product.

While there may have been an error on the CPSC’s part — in that they did not demand a formal recall be issued at the time (likely due to Trump administration cutbacks that restricted their ability to do their job efficiently and effectively), in Pura’s course of action to not follow through on public recall of this product in 2017 (IF, in fact, Pura Kiki did report the issue to the CPSC at that time as you claim), followed by their action of continuing to sell the Lead-contaminated product (including with Made Safe certification labeling on the Lead contaminated version of the product) through early 2018 — Pura firmly established themselves as an unethical company. So thank you for that additional information supporting our statements.

 

Pura’s own representatives confirmed in emails with customers (and customers confirmed separately) that the Lead-contaminated products continued to be sold into dates in 2018. So — separately — if Pura’s report was from 2017, based on what you have communicated in your letter to me today, Pura apparently did NOT report to the CPSC that they continued to sell Lead contaminated products into 2018. I believe that might be considered a separate incidence of CPSC violation (although I will have to look into that).

 

Our violation report (the report of a violation that can be made by any citizen) is valid and stands. We will not be retracting any information that we have published. The only thing that you have challenged that may have had any merit was our speculation that there was an incident of failure to report HOWEVER in your email you confirmed that — in fact — although there may have been no failure to report in 2017, there appears to have been a failure to report in 2018 as the Lead contaminated inventory continued to be sold. Thank you for confirming this and therefore supporting our violation report.

 

And we will continue to publicly share all communications from the company, the CPSC, and the attorneys for the company. For you to challenge our right to report the truth to the Consumer Product Safety Commission is to challenge our Civil Rights — and I will not stand for that. Bullying and pressuring for a retraction of statements of fact is not legal or warranted.

 

The violation report that we filed with the CPSC is a matter of public record and also cannot be retracted. We received a confirmation report (that they received our violation report) from the CPSC and intend to publish that shortly.

 

All instances on our website about the Pura Kiki products are true and relevant as they are from the time period of the violation OR they refer to the time period of the violation as a reference. No comments have been made about the current products — only about the lack of ethical behavior by the brand for not recalling their Lead-contaminated products — and now for “lawyering up” and not doing the right thing (issuing a notice of recall on their older Lead-contaminated products which are still being found in use in homes today).

 

Now that you have brought new fact(s) to light in this case I am looking forward to buying and testing more of their current product to see if — in fact — their claim that they removed the lead from their product is true.

The statements in your cease and desist letter (stating that Pura reported to the CPSC in 2017) combined with the documented fact that Pura continued to sell the Lead contaminated version of the product through at least 2018, actually further supports our violation to report to the CPSC – so thank you so much for providing this information: that Pura even REPORTED the Lead issue to the CPSC yet still continued to sell Lead-contaminated product. Very interesting tidbit for you to have shared in “defense” of the unethical actions of this company.

Tamara Rubin
Owner – Lead Safe Mama, LLC
www.LeadSafeMama.com
@LeadSafeMama
tamararubin@mac.com

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To read the response below (my third response to Pura’s attorneys — my P.P.S.) check out the four overlapping screenshots below — or keep scrolling below those to read a text version of the same.  Thank you for being here! Will upload the petition here and on social media soon.

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Text of the above letter
(my third response to the legal team for Pura Stainless)

Hello again.

I just wanted to follow up to say thank you. Thank you for supporting our violation report to the CPSC by providing additional relevant information to this case. 

 

In our CPSC violation report we stated that “to our knowledge” Pura had not reported the violation. This is 100% true. Prior to you contacting us we had no knowledge or evidence that Pura complied with the “Duty to Report” requirement of the CPSIA in this matter.

 

If, in fact, Pura Stainless DID report this issue to the CPSC in 2017 (if they complied with the “Duty to Report” requirement of the CPSIA of 2008 in 2017), we would sincerely appreciate evidence of this compliance — and specifically documentation (evidence) showing WHAT they reported and HOW they reported it. 

 

We are also interested in knowing WHETHER-OR-NOT they reported the Lead contamination of their product in a fashion that invited the CPSC to follow up with additional testing, or if they only provided a statement sharing that they believed their product was in compliance (based on internal testing or based on their “faulty” [for lack of a better word] Made Safe Certification, [a certification that “confirmed” the product was Lead-free when, in fact, it was not]). 

 

We are also curious about the CPSC’s response — and specifically if the CPSC took Pura’s statements at face value without further inquiry, or if they did additional testing to confirm Pura’s assertions. 

 

Please forward all relevant communications to and from the CPSC to confirm your assertion that there was not a failure to comply with the “duty to report” condition of the CPSIA in 2017. 

 

Please realize however that, based on the information YOU SHARED in your email earlier today – it appears that our assertion of a “failure of compliance with duty to report” is 100% correct – as while they may have reported in 2017 (based on your statement: “In fact, in 2017, the Company provided a report to the CPSC regarding the Pura Kiki 9 oz. Insulated Bottle (the “Pura Kiki”), and no violations were determined.”), it does appear (again, based on information you have provided to date, or the lack thereof) that – if the 2017 report was their only report – they failed to report the ongoing concern when it came up again in 2018. 

 

Our documentation (shared in the CPSC violation report we submitted) clearly demonstrates that the issue did come up again in 2018 – which would have warranted a follow-up instance of a “duty to report” by Pura Stainless.

 

Specifically (as noted in the violation report that we filed) Pura Stainless continued to sell the Lead-contaminated products into at least early 2018 — and was informed by consumers during that time (the first part of 2018) of the failure of their product — a failure mode which exposed the children using the product to an unsafe level of lead. If they did not report that fact in 2018 (in addition to any reporting they may or may not have done in 2017) once they were contacted and notified about the ongoing concern by consumers at that time (again, in 2018) our assertion that they should be cited and fined appropriately for a failure to comply with the duty to report is not without merit.

 

Here is a screenshot of the full language from our violation report submitted to the CPSC related to the “Duty to Report” section. Rereading this section in response to your e-mail we continue to assert that every statement is true and correct to the best of our knowledge. We also signed and submitted an affidavit for the CPSC that we have reported truthfully.:

 

 

We sincerely look forward to receiving the above-requested documentation and publishing this documentation on our website. 

 

If you are not able to share this documentation with us at this time we will look for it the supporting documentation for any lawsuit that you file and we will publish it on our website at that time. We sincerely hope that you consider retracting this threat as, again, it is not a good look for the company. Instead it would have been appropriate for Pura Kiki to say “thank you” for our findings of Lead in their products (a public “thank you” is always good) with a promise to fix the problem and public statement of a recall for the products in question (products manufactured and sold during the time period in question.)

 

Given Pura Stainless’ response was to become adversarial with legal threats, the Lead Safe Mama community online has requested that we start a public petition demanding that Pura Stainless retract its legal threats against Lead Safe Mama, LLC and that they (finally) issue a statement of public apology and a recall for the product in question. We will be starting a petition in response to the requests that we do so.

 

For your information — and as a point of clarification, Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not a “blog.”

 

Lead Safe Mama, LLC is run by Tamara Rubin (me) a multi-federal award-winning environmental activist. Lead Safe Mama, LLC is also an internationally recognized woman-owned small business with a focus on consumer goods safety and childhood Lead poisoning prevention. Our work has been responsible for FIVE recent product recalls (CPSC and FDA) — including THREE stainless steel products with the same issue as the Pura Stainless product, which we submitted violation reports for. While we “have” a blog, we are not a “blog” and I am not a “blogger.”

 

Some additional thoughts:

 

It is especially inappropriate (and notable) that you sent this cease and desist letter at the beginning of National Lead Poisoning Prevention Month. It takes a supreme level of being “out of touch” for a company that has made a Lead contaminated children’s product (never issuing a recall) to do that.

 

Please excuse the typos in my second email (the one sent before this). The version I published on my website is slightly corrected for readability and I am sharing the link with you here:

https://tamararubin.com/2023/10/today-pura-stainless-sent-me-a-threatening-cease-desist-letter-from-their-lawyers/

 

Have a great day!

 

Thank you for your time.

Tamara Rubin
Owner – Lead Safe Mama, LLC
www.LeadSafeMama.com
@LeadSafeMama
tamararubin@mac.com

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