What is a Lead Safe Mama “Healthy Home Consultation?”
First, we want to clarify what it is not.
- A Lead Safe Mama healthy home consultation is not a “Hazard Assessment.”
- We are not associated with a hazard assessor or laboratory — and do not claim to be.
- We do not provide an official report or written summary of our work.
- This work is also not medical advice; Tamara is not a doctor or healthcare provider, and we do not work directly with anyone in the medical professions (although it can be complementary to your work with your doctor — especially if you have tested positive for metals in your blood, urine or hair and are looking for potential sources of exposure in your daily life and routines).
What it is: a personalized educational experience!
Think of your Lead Safe Mama healthy home consultation as a one-on-one class; an educational opportunity tailored just for you and your family. During our time together we look at your environment (your home, your consumer goods, and how you interact with those things each day) to find potential sources of heavy metal exposure for yourself or other members of your family and to suggest safer alternatives for items of concern. I often also go to schools and daycare centers with families to look for hazards that children might be exposed to when they are away from home.
In most Lead Safe Mama home consultations, we use XRF technology to look for sources of the following metals in your environment:
- Arsenic,
- Cadmium,
- Lead,
- Mercury,
- Antimony,
- Cobalt,
- Barium,
- Tin,
- Nickel,
- & many other metals about which you may have concerns.
You are not alone in taking this “class!”
In fact, State health departments, universities, hospitals, and other agencies across the country (including EPA offices!) have hired Tamara Rubin to coordinate and lead collaborative community educational presentations for which attendees (including doctors, nurses, teachers, contractors, and others) often get continuing education credits (CEUs) from their local relevant state agency (for example their local health department) for attending these events and participating in this conversation. This is your opportunity for a class like this — but one that is 100% tailored to your individual needs/ to answer your questions — and to look for safer choices for your family.
If you have not yet had a heavy metals urine, blood, or hair test done by your doctor, these tests can be useful tools to have on hand for our visit — and we do encourage our families to ask their doctors if a heavy metals panel would be appropriate in their particular situation. Heavy metal panels often are presented as a bar graph, and if there are specific metals that you test positive for (at unsafe levels, as determined by your doctor), we can be on the lookout for sources of those specific metals in your environment. (Please read this article which discusses this type of testing in more detail.)
How do you know if Tamara will be in your area during an upcoming travel month?
- Regular Lead Safe Mama travel months are January, April, and October of each year.
- Tamara makes additional trips to New York/ New Jersey (from Oregon) 1 or 2 times a year each year.
- Tamara is also available for home consultations anywhere in the world fairly last minute if your situation is more urgent and you prefer not to wait for a pre-planned trip.
If you are among the first to book a consultation during January, April, or October (when the schedule is announced — normally about three months in advance of the travel dates), we will build the travel schedule around your visit no matter where you are (in the United States or Canada)… so “YES!” We CAN be in your area during one of those months (anywhere!).
Check out the links below for more info.
We are currently booking for dates in April, May and June 2024 (see above graphics).
We geographically cluster home consultations (and community outreach events, and in-person corporate consultations) together for these pre-set travel months. This enables us to not charge separate travel fees to families who need help during these months — making our consultations & events (a bit) more affordable for families and small community groups.
To Book A Consult:
- Look at the April, May, and June 2024 images above to see when and where we are generally going to be.
- If you are within a 3-hour drive of a noted location, you can book during one of the dates that already has a location set.
- If you are not within a 3-hour drive of a noted location, you can book during one of the days with “???” on the date on the calendar below.
- To reiterate: if there is a “???” on the dates on the calendar, we will travel to ANY LOCATION in the United States during that date range.
- To tentatively reserve your date, please contact Tamara Rubin (email: TamaraRubin @ Mac dot com or text: 415-609-3182) to confirm the date is available for your location.
- Once we confirm a date/ date-range, we will e-mail you an invoice for your consultation.
- The 2024 fee for a one-on-one home consultation (in person, with Tamara) during a pre-set travel month (a month during which we have set aside a block of time to travel the country helping families in person) is $3,000 (in most U.S. Locations).
- There are no separate travel charges during these travel months.
- This fee includes our flights, lodging, ground transportation, instrument registration (and other administrative fees) to come to your area.
- This is a flat rate that is all-inclusive.
- The consultation (or small community event) that included with this fee is a 3 to 4 hour in-person appointment at your location.
- To hold a tentative date on our 2024 travel schedule (May/June 2024), payment of 50% of the fee (a payment of $1,500.00) is required at the time you make your reservation.
- The remaining 50% is due on the first of the month for the calendar month prior to your appointment (for example if your appointment is scheduled in May, the remainder would be due on April 1st to confirm a date.)
- To confirm / finalize a date at any other time (to confirm any time earlier than the month before) you can pay the full amount due (this is a good option for people who have less flexibility in their schedule.)
- Full details regarding our 2024 rates for consultations during travel months (and also during other times), are below.
- Funds paid are fully refundable per the terms of our refund policy linked at the bottom of every page of this site.
Lead Safe Mama Home Consultations
Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.) – LINKS
- What happens in a home consultation? How do I prepare for a home consultation?
- How many items can be tested in a consultation?
- What instrumentation do you use for testing?
- What certifications do you hold?
- Some locations will require XRF instrument registration before I come to you. Here are links to my current (active) registration certificates (1/1/2024). If you live in an area that requires instrument registration, I will take care of that before I come to you:
- New York — up for renewal March 17, 2024
- Oregon — up for renewal February 29, 2024
- Ohio — up for renewal September 30, 2025
- California — Filed/ Current registration pending
Here’s the current 2024 Lead Safe Mama travel schedule
with availability for consultations in the U.S. and Canada
(Different colors are just included to note different locations)
Rates for 2024
- One-on-One Home Consultations during Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s pre-set travel months in 2024: $3,000
- For 2024 this is the April, May, and June schedule noted in the graphics above as well as the full month of October 2024.
- The $3,000 fee includes all travel costs to your location in the U.S. or Canada (flight, hotels, ground transportation, etc.)
- The $3,000 fee includes a one-on-one 3-to-4 hour in-person consultation with Tamara Rubin.
- The fee also includes follow-up support via text and phone.
- One-on-One Home Consultation rates for U.S. destinations outside of pre-set travel travel months (dates not noted above, below or in October of 2024):
- $3,000 for your 3-to-4 hour consultation
- Including follow-up support via text and phone
- $1,500 per travel day to come to you (travel is usually from our home base of Portland, Oregon).
- Most locations require two travel days (for example, the East Coast) – so the additional fee is $3,000 in travel costs.
- Some USA West Coast locations require only one travel day (such as California, Colorado, Idaho, or Washington State) – so the additional fee is $1,500 towards travel costs.
- The total for consultations (outside of pre-set travel months) starting January 2024 ranges from $4,500 to $6,000 (this = a consultation fee and all travel day fees).
- $3,000 for your 3-to-4 hour consultation
- Note: I will travel anywhere in the world to work with families or communities (including working with hospitals, health departments and educational institutions). For consultations outside of the United States, rates will be calculated on a case-by-case basis and include:
- actual travel costs
- travel day fees
- consultation fee
- XRF permitting/ registration fees when relevant
- Rates for in-person Speaking Engagements, Trainings, and Outreach Events are published separately and start at $5,500 per half-day engagement and $8,000 per full-day engagement.
“But this is so expensive!”
While we understand the cost may seem out of reach for many families, at this time the advocacy work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not yet profitable, and we cannot afford to subsidize the costs any more than we already do.
For the present, if you cannot afford a one-on-one consultation, but are interested in participating in the work, this website (TamaraRubin.com / LeadSafeMama.com) is a freely available resource (with thousands of pages of information), and you may also want to keep your eyes open (sign up for our newsletter here) for Lead Safe Mama public Community Events in your area, normally sponsored by (and hosted by) local health departments, educational institutions, hospitals, etc. with participation for the public offered free of charge.
If you want to discuss the possibility of your local health department (or hospital, or college) sponsoring a free public event, please be in touch. Here’s an overview of elements that might be included in those events: link.
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Hi Tamara,
Just another thank you for all that you do.
I am doing my best to try and help spread the word within the community during the baby classes I attend with my little one.
I checked out your upcoming schedule. Nothing on the books for the West Coast in Canada this year, so far?
I could do the West Coast of Canada in June (post June-15)