Cinnamon & Magnesium & A Request For Your Support of the Work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC
Posted on Patreon on September 7, 2025
Sunday
Hi all!
We just published an updated comparative chart showing test results for all of the Magnesium products we have tested to date. You can find that chart on this link below (along with links to all of the articles with Magnesium lab reports that have been published to date). The chart also includes lab results for three products for which we have not yet published reports – so a bit of a sneak peek!
https://tamararubin.com/2025/09/magnesium-chart/
If you are not yet a Paid Lead Safe Mama Patreon Member, please do consider bumping your membership up with a monthly gift of just $2.50 a month (or more if you can afford it) in support of this work. Thank you. Here’s the link to our Patreon home page: http://www.patreon.com/LeadSafeMama
Tiring Fundraising Pitch With Context
Fundraising Pitch Formatting Guide:
- Share valuable content (Magnesium chart link above – in this case), and then ask for support in exchange for said valuable content.
- Integrate as much additional valuable content (cinnamon conversation in this case) into fundraising pitch if possible.
- I KNOW this gets old, but I truly appreciate it when you take the time to read our requests for support, as the “valuable content” would not be possible without the financial support.
And so….
I was reading an article last night about how much various Substack publishers earn, and it was fairly depressing – in the context of our work!
Some of the journalists on Substack are making millions of dollars each year with funds raised through their subscriber base. In so many ways, the information we share here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC — information to help you keep your families safe from unnecessary exposure to toxicants — is so much more critical that what some of these journalists share, it seems like it should get more attention – AND more funding (not to diss journalism in general, journalism is critical to a functional society, but so is unbiased science!)
Lead Safe Mama, LLC is currently receiving $942.oo [Nine Hundred and Forty Two Dollars] in monthly pledged support from 374 very generous paid members here on Patreon. We have a total of 4,298 Patreon members as this moment (including free and paid members). Our short term goal is to raise $3,000.oo a month in support of the work here on Patreon by December 31, 2025 – with a stretch goal of $5,000.oo a month to help cover the work of our team. (Here’s our per-lab-test budget if you have not yet seen it).
Our goals are not lofty, nor excessive.
$3,000.oo / month would be possible with just 1,200 people contributing $2.50 a month (just about 28% of our current membership).
Our goal is (and always has been) to simply cover the cost of the work we do here so we can keep doing it, because no one else is doing what we do like we are.
Every other agency, organization or business sharing scientific test results for products does so by consistently applying a distorting veil of “context” — repackaging the data to tell you whether or not the results are good or bad or presenting it in a way that favors continued consumerism (for example “safer swaps”), often not sharing the data with their audience directly so those people can make science-based informed decisions.
One specific example of this (for context) is Consumer Reports’ telling you which Lead-contaminated cinnamon is “better” or safer, when compared to which other Lead-contaminated cinnamon (What?!) In my opinion that kind of reporting is both irresponsible journalism and an irresponsible use of science (interpreting levels of danger for consumers – instead of discouraging them from using a product that is heavily contaminated – not only with Lead, but also with very concerning levels of Cadmium – and sometimes even with Mercury!)
Someone over at Consumer Reports really did not get the memo that there is no safe level of Lead exposure. Encouraging “some” cinnamon consumption instead of discouraging cinnamon consumption — instead of using the gathered scientific information to focus on encouraging consumers to put pressure on industry to clean up these contaminated products — is simply irresponsible. There’s no safe level of Lead exposure. All cinnamon (all products tested to date – by Lead Safe Mama, LLC & by Consumer Reports – and others) has come back contaminated with a cocktail of toxicants – including one or more heavy metals. Evaluating the Lead-contamination of cinnamon in isolation – in this case – is also irresponsible. Consumer Reports’ “cleanest” cinnamon choice ignores the fact that this “clean” cinnamon product (Whole Foods Organic Ground Cinnamon) may have a lower level of Lead, but tested positive for a very high level of Cadmium (a known carcinogen).
Here’s our cinnamon chart if you have not seen it yet.
Perhaps unfortunately our (Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s) ethical standards are too high, too high to comply with the self-sustaining business models expected within a capitalistic society — in that we feel very strongly that the information we share should NEVER be behind a paywall of any kind, so we’re leaving the fate of our continued work in the hands of generous good samaritans (like so many of you) who choose to contribute in support of the work not because they have to contribute, but because they are in a position to contribute and they understand the societal benefit of the work.
Of course, then there’s the argument of “public health” — we’ve created a small business engaged in public health. Public health is not a profitable endeavor. People expect the information and resources provided by the public health system to be provided for free. It’s not a good business model inherently – doing what we do, but the public health agencies in our country (and around the world) are also missing the mark, so we are filling an information gap that needs to be filled (in spite of it being a bad business model).
I guess that’s all I have to say at the moment. Thank you for listening (for reading). Please contribute if you can. Thank you.
Thank you to all of you for simply being here (being part of the conversation even if you cannot afford to contribute is so very important!) – and a big extra thank you to those of you who have chosen to contribute in support of the work simply because you can, so those who cannot contribute also have access to this important information to help make safer choices for their families.
Thank you.
Tamara
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