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!
Published: March 17, 2024
Working to expand our knowledge of kitty litters around the world (and whether or not they test positive for Lead in any amount), it seemed like a good time to test some locally here in Scotland. I was pleasantly surprised to learn (via XRF testing) that this product is Lead-free, however it did test positive for trace levels of Cadmium (a known carcinogen) — this is likely equally concerning as Lead, given cats lick their paws after doing their business.
Points to note:
- The interesting thing about the sample we tested is that it is not at all dusty.
- I don’t know exactly what it is made of other than “selected natural ingredients” — I couldn’t find specific ingredients on the bag (but I am going to put my kids to the detective work to see if they come up with something I missed).
- It is, however, NOT DUSTY AT ALL and does not seem like clay (the types of litters we often see in the United States are clay-based), but seems like it is made of tiny rocks (possibly manmade rocks/ pebbles made of natural mineral ingredients?).
- I imagine that there’s a possibility the trace levels of Cadmium found could be “bound” in the rocks, given there is no dust from this product — but more testing (using laboratory testing methods) would need to be done to confirm that hypothesis.
Full XRF test results for a sample of the kitty litter pictured
60-second tests repeated multiple times to confirm the results
- Lead (Pb): non-detect (low threshold of detection “less than 7 ppm”)
- Cadmium (Cd): 10 +/- 5 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect (low threshold of detection “less than 15 ppm”)
- Iron (Fe): 577 +/- 110 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 58 +/- 4 ppm
- No other metals were detected in consumer goods mode.
~ End ~
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