Lead Safe Mama, LLC CPSC Violation Report (Report #: LSM 2024_002) Zak! Designs knowingly used Lead in their products made and sold for use by children
Filed: February 19, 2024 with the following images attached
(continue reading below the images for the full violation report).
Example of Amazon listing for these products:
A note to LeadSafeMama.com readers and community members:
If you have experienced this issue (the Lead-containing component of your child’s insulated Stainless Steel Zak! Designs water bottle/ cup/ tumbler becoming exposed when the seal on the bottom of the product fails), please report the failure of your product (the exposure of Lead in the substrate caused by the bottom disc failing when the product is used as intended) to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission at the following link: https://www.saferproducts.gov/IncidentReporting.
- Please be prepared to include information about the design/ model and the date your item was purchased (as well as the vendor, if possible — Amazon, for example) as well as photos of the product that show the failure (if you have photos).
- If your child has been tested for Lead (using Blood Lead Level [BLL] testing) please also include any positive test results that could be correlated to the child’s use of this product once the bottom cap failed and exposed Lead.
- In your report, to dispel the false assertions made by Zak! (per their communication shown above with statements telling customers that the stainless steel bottom discs do not fall off these products with normal use, when the product is used as intended), please include the date you purchased your product alongside the known (or approximate) date that the bottom disc fell off and the product began exposing your child to Lead.
Thank you.
Please feel free to use any of the language Lead Safe Mama, LLC has drafted (in our report below). The more reports that the CPSC receives about this violation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008, the more likely they will be to quickly take action in the matter.
Our goal in addressing this is not only for Zak! (and any affiliated retailers) to stop selling these Lead-contaminated stainless steel children’s products, but also that the CPSC issues a formal and official recall for any of the Lead-contaminated insulated stainless steel Zak! products (all models and all designs) sold for children’s use to date.
Thank you for for being part of the Lead Safe Mama international advocacy community and thank you supporting this work in this way. Thank you for being part of the world-wide movement for consumer goods safety and childhood Lead poisoning prevention.
Body of Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s CPSC violation report for the Zak! Designs Lead-Contaminated Insulated Stainless Steel Children’s products:
I am a…
Public safety entity.
Step 1.) What Happened?
Lead Safe Mama, LLC is an advocacy organization for Consumer Goods Safety and Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. Our website is LeadSafeMama.com. We had approximately 2.5 million readers in 2023. Our readers and community members (around the world) report potential product issues (primarily related to concerns for Lead exposure) that they encounter. We follow-up on these issues to determine if the product(s) in question are safe — or if they are a violation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008.
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Following up on the Lead Safe Mama community’s discovery of unsafe levels of Lead in the insulated stainless steel products made by Cupkin ([first reported on by Lead Safe Mama, LLC in January of 2023] which the CPSC subsequently recalled in July 2023), and following up on our discovery of unsafe levels of Lead in the Green Sprouts insulated stainless steel baby bottle products (which the CPSC subsequently recalled in November of 2022), members of the Lead Safe Mama global community sent us several examples of Zak! Designs insulated stainless steel children’s products (tumblers/ sippy cups/ water bottles) to test for Lead.
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These products are manufactured and sold expressly for use by children. Per the correspondence image attached (which is a recent communication from Zak! Designs to a concerned customer), Zak is fully aware that they use Lead in the substrate of their insulated stainless steel children’s products. Contradictory to the company’s (false) statements, the Lead found in these children’s products is in an area that becomes exposed with normal use of the product as intended. Specifically, Lead Safe Mama, LLC community members have reported the stainless “discs” (which appear to be primarily press-fit on over a 40-60% Lead sealing dot) falling off of the bottom of their Zak! Designs products (products intended and sold for use by children) within one month of purchase (to up to 12 months after purchase with normal use as intended).
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Using XRF technology (a Niton XL3T, the same instrument historically used by the CPSC for screening consumer goods), Lead Safe Mama, LLC determined that the Lead solder used in these children’s products is in the range of 400,000 to 600,000 ppm Lead — an amount which is far in excess of the CPSCIA’s limit of 100 ppm Lead for the substrate of any item intended (and marketed and sold) for use by children.
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In recent years, we have worked with several families (whose children had “unknown” sources of Lead exposure) where one of these Zak! Design products (with a compromised seal on the bottom, exposing the Lead sealing dot) was a likely contributing source of the child’s Lead exposure. Given the popularity of these highly Lead-contaminated products (combined with their bright colors and cartoon character designs, which makes them especially attractive to children), the potential for injury (via Lead exposure to children) is high.
Step 2. Tell Us About The Product
1.) Describe the product
We are specifically aware of the Zak! Design brand products pictured, including (but not limited to) their 12 ounce insulated stainless steel “Kelso” children’s tumblers (see attached images) in all colors, designs and sizes (including — but not limited to — the Paw Patrol designs, see additional images with this submission) having an unsafe level of Lead (in the bottom seal that creates the vacuum of the product) that becomes exposed with normal use as intended, when used by young children (the intended user of the product). We request that all of the insulated stainless steel children’s products made for children by Zak! Designs be recalled in a highly-visible and public recall orchestrated/ implemented/ published/ publicized by the CPSC.
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While we request that the CPSC demand that Zak! Designs stops manufacturing any and all Lead-contaminated children’s products, we are especially concerned about the need for these Zak! Design products to be part of a CPSC-initiated highly-visible public recall, as this is NOT the first CPSC violation that Zak! Designs is guilty of.
Zak! Designs has also manufactured other Lead-contaminated products (clearly products expressly marked and sold for use by children) that were never recalled by the CPSC but should have been. Please see the attached images of the Frozen mug and Star Wars mug, each Zak! Design children’s products that also tested positive for high Levels of Lead. Each of these can be found (with XRF test results for the product) on the Lead Safe Mama website.
Link to Zak! Designs Frozen Mug: https://tamararubin.com/2018/07/2014-zak-designs-frozen-anna-elsa-mug-8834-ppm-lead-90-ppm-lead-is-considered-unsafe-for-children/.
Link to Zak! Designs Star Wars Mug: https://tamararubin.com/2019/07/star-wars-storm-trooper-ceramic-mug-dollar-store-find-605-ppm-lead-90-is-considered-unsafe-in-childrens-items/.
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We also request that the CPSC evaluate Zak! Design’s sales practices related to their products sold for use by adults. Their larger size insulated stainless steel products (manufactured and sold/ marketed for use by adults and older children) are also being used by children across the United States (and beyond) because there is no warning at all (to our knowledge) on the product or the packaging that they are only designed to be used by adults (or children outside of the CPSIA’s oversight age-limit). Should Zak! Designs continue to manufacture insulated stainless Lead-contaminated products for use by adults, we request the CPSC mandate that these products have a warning notation (printed on the base/ bottom of the product) and on the packaging, clearly indicating that these products are not intended for use by children as they contain unsafe levels of Lead.
2. Brand Name
Zak! Designs
3. Manfacturer/ Importer
Zak! Designs
4. Please provide Model Name or Number
All insulated stainless steel children’s products made and sold by Zak! Designs through at least December 2023
Questions 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
“All”
10. Upload Photos
See 13 photos uploaded at top of this page.
Link to PDF of Report as Filed
Confirmation Email:
“Congratulations! You have successfully submitted a report 20240219-09B2E-2147340908 to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
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