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!
Metals highlighted below in RED are considered unsafe for humans in this application (dishware). Metals highlighted in BLUE are considered safe for humans in this application (or at the levels detected in this item).
XRF test results for the Heartland dish pictured
Reading #1) Center of Food Surface of Dish
Speckled Beige Background
60-Second Reading
- Lead (Pb): 56 +/- 10 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
- Arsenic (As): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Antimony (Sb): non-detect
- Iron (Fe): 2,138 +/- 133 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 57 +/- 20 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 19,600 +/- 400 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 556 +/- 15 ppm
- Indium (In): 10 +/- 6 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 13 +/- 7 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 90 +/- 26 ppm
- No other metals were detected in Consumer Goods Mode.
Reading #2) Food Surface of Dish
Brown & White Cow
60-Second Reading
- Lead (Pb): 17,100 +/- 300 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 9 +/- 6 ppm
- Arsenic (As): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Antimony (Sb): non-detect
- Chromium (Cr): 2,645 +/- 335 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 3,425 +/- 195 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 81 +/- 26 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 15,200 +/- 300 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 1,199 +/- 34 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 811 +/- 29 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 126 +/- 38 ppm
- Platinum (Pt): 346 +/- 86 ppm
- No other metals were detected in Consumer Goods Mode.
Reading #3) Food Surface of Dish
Blue Farmer
60-Second Reading
- Lead (Pb): 399 +/- 24 ppm
- Cadmium (Cd): 8 +/- 5 ppm
- Arsenic (As): non-detect
- Mercury (Hg): non-detect
- Antimony (Sb): non-detect
- Chromium (Cr): 716 +/- 234 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 2,423 +/- 150 ppm
- Cobalt (Co): 753 +/- 77 ppm
- Copper (Cu): 86 +/- 23 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 20,000 +/- 400 ppm
- Zirconium (Zr): 969 +/- 24 ppm
- Indium (In): 10 +/- 6 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 46 +/- 8 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 104 +/- 29 ppm
- Platinum (Pt): 117 +/- 63 ppm
- Bismuth (Bi): 230 +/- 19 ppm
- No other metals were detected in Consumer Goods Mode.
How much Lead is “too much” Lead?
For context, the amount of Lead considered unsafe in an item intended for use by children is anything 90 ppm Lead or higher in the paint, glaze, or coating of an item and/or anything 100 ppm Lead or higher in the substrate. Unfortunately (as discussed in many articles here on the Lead Safe Mama website), there is no law limiting total (XRF-detectable) Lead content in dishes or cookware (or really in any consumer goods not expressly “intended for use by children”). For a detailed discussion about the concern for Leaded glaze on new or vintage dishware, click here.
Some additional reading that may be of interest:
- Can I test my own dishes myself at home?
- What can I test with a home test kit?
- Can I send you a dish to test?
- How to use this website to search for products you have in your home (a video)
- Safer (Lead-free) choices for dishes and other items in your home
As always, thank you for reading and sharing articles on LeadSafeMama.com. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them personally as soon as I have a moment.
Tamara Rubin
Owner — Lead Safe Mama, LLC
#LeadSafeMama
Thank you so much! Just picked some of these plates up at a thrift store because I thought they were cute — turns out they have lead and won’t be used! Appreciate the memo.
I have this entire collection I found at the thrift store, loved them so much. So sad to hear they have lead as my little kids have eaten on them. Time to replace them, thank you!