Lead Safe Mama, LLC Legal Update

September 23, 2026
Wednesday
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Hi friends (new and old!)

I expect there will be quite a few new people visiting our website in response to the news this week. As such we wanted to put our need for ongoing support (support of our work – as always – speaking Truth to power) front and center on our website and social media pages.

It has never been our intention to “go up against” multi-million-dollar companies (or billion-dollar companies for that matter!), we simply test and report on products that our online community requests that we test and report on (including products for which our community contributes their hard-earned money to help cover the costs of testing and reporting).

While product testing is not all we do, through one of Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s primary programs — The Lead Safe Mama, LLC Community Collaborative Laboratory Testing Initiative — the families in our community (about 2.3 million households around the globe at last count, per Google Analytics), rely on us to provide unbiased / uninfluenced scientific test results both of consumable goods (food, supplements, personal care products, etc.) and durable products (dishes, pots and pans, household items) to help them make science-informed choices for their families.

Our work has never been about generating fear (we expressly discourage fear and worry, and encourage instead learning about the science behind concerns so you can quickly and easily make safer choices for your family). You can read more about that here.

Our work has always been about empowering families by providing direct access to unbiased science (science without corporate interests of any kind influencing the outcome). Fundamental to our work is the consensus within the scientific and medical communities (a stand reiterated by all relevant federal agencies) that there is no safe level of Lead exposure for human beings — and when Lead-free choices are available (which is almost always the case), those are the products we – as consumers – should choose (in order to “vote with our dollars”).

We are a very small business (with what amounts to two full-time staff, seven part-time helpers and a handful of dedicated volunteers around the world). When we test and report on the products that our community asks us to test, we don’t first research to find out whether or not the manufacturer of those products is in the middle of an investment funding round, a merger, a multi-million dollar partial buyout, or a takeover by a billion dollar company. What matters to us is whether or not the product might be consumed by (or used by) children and / or women of childbearing age — and whether or not it tests positive for the primary heavy metals we test for (Lead, Cadmium, Mercury and Arsenic).

Perhaps I am naive as I fundamentally believe that people are good and all people believe that children should be protected from harm. The idea that a multi-million-dollar-company (or a multi-hundred-million-dollar company as it were) might be so afraid of the unbiased, community funded, direct-to-consumer scientific test results we publish that they would hire a “fixer pr firm” in an attempt to destroy our reputation and incapacitate us (solely to protect their financial interests) — is not something we had even considered as a possible outcome of our work. [For more specifics on this, check your the news in the coming week!] It all seems outlandish and impossible – something you might see in the movies. In fact it would make a great film – hopefully with a surprise positive twist ending! [Here’s our original post about this from January 2026.]

As a result of the legal attacks on our work over the past decade, as an organization we have close to $400,000 in debt, About $160,000 of this debt has been incurred in the past couple of years (in the form of loans from friends of Lead Safe Mama, LLC to cover legal costs and funds currently owed to members of our legal team) due to the more recent orchestrated attacks on our work (attacks on our credibility, attacks on our business model, attacks on the intention and focus of our work, and attacks on me personally – my character, my family, and more).

In February of 2017 we launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with our various legals costs (primarily related to our federal Civil Rights Case, as it unfolded at the time) and other costs to keep our little business afloat. I did not expect at the time that that GoFundMe campaign would still be something we need to rely on. I could not have predicted at that time that engaging in Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and Consumer Goods Safety Advocacy would be so incredibly controversial — but, apparently, corporate interests have a lot to lose when the truth (in the form of science, scientific testing, and science education around heavy metals toxicity concerns) is handed straight to consumers.

Since 2017 (in the past 9.5 years) Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s GoFundMe has raised $63,991.00 (as of today, September 23, 2026). This works out to an average of about $6,735.00 each year. This support of our work has been incredibly helpful in keeping Lead Safe Mama, LLC going but – unfortunately – doesn’t begin to bridge the gap in our funding needs, especially given all of the recent attacks on our work.

With this new round of revelations (over the past two years, but also since December 2025, and also in the past week alone!) related to the orchestrated attacks on our work, we have needed to pay more than $200,000 towards legal support (including the work of the Lead Safe Mama Team in support of the work of our Legal Team). We currently have a legal team with eleven members (in five different offices, across five different states — Oregon, Washington State, New York, Florida, and California!), and are interviewing two more firms to possibly add to the team this week (in Oregon and Texas)!

While we have diverted nearly all of Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s available earnings towards this fight for Truth and Justice, funds for legal fees that we have borrowed from friends of the organization also need to be repaid as soon as possible. We also — as of the moment of writing this — still have about $27,000.00 in outstanding / current legal bills in support of these various matters, and a total of about $60,000.00 in loaned funds that we would like to repay as soon as possible (as the people who loaned us these funds are not people of means, yet they have been very patient, yet also steadfast in their support of our work).

For those who might ask, we are doing our best to keep our costs down (to limit the hemorrhaging of funds!) Our legal team is a mix of agreements that include pro-bono, contingency-based, and fee-for service (paid via retainers and invoices for billable hours) arrangements, however in order to hire the best in pursuit of “Truth” and “Justice” not everything can be “pro-bono” or “on contingency”. To this end, we need your support to continue our fight for Justice (for us and for others who have been impacted by similar attacks) if you are in a position to help in any way (at any level).

Lead Safe Mama, LLC is a community collaborative organization. We do work that is directed by our community and that is paid for by our community — so when circumstances like these arise, we also need to request the support of our community to help with legal fees. We are not a 501(c) nonprofit so gifts in support of our work are not classified as tax-deductible charitable contributions, however they are very much appreciated and we depend on your support in this way.

This past week a very generous anonymous supporter of our work made the maximum allowable tax-free gift of $19,000.00 to help us with our legal fees — if we could identify 9 or 10 more gifts like that possible from our community, our most urgent financial needs would be covered, however large gifts like that are few and far between. More often than not our work is supported by gifts of $1.oo or $5.oo or $10.oo from those who may not have a lot of financial means, yet support the work we do and appreciate how our “little-movement-that-could” has helped their families over the past 15 years.

So please give whatever you can – truly any amount helps.

If you are in a position to make a loan that may see us through to the end of one-or-more of our current legal actions, we would appreciate that as well — as we anticipate at least one settlement to be finalized in the coming year (we are currently working on four separate legal actions). Once we do get a settlement (which would be our first, should that arise), we intend to set aside whatever funds possible towards a legal fund to defend against future attacks on our work should they happen. To this end we are also looking for a CPA to help advise us in structuring any settlements, and would love your referrals if you have one!

If you are planning on making a gift and only have the means to make a relatively small gift, our preference is that sign up to give a small monthly gift via Patreon. Our Patreon support helps create a sustainable and predictable base of income to fund the operating costs behind our lab testing initiative. Each $500 in monthly support via Patreon makes it possible for us to test and report on at least one product (using independent, third part lab testing). Our per-item lab-testing budget can be found on this link.

Our most recent Patreon update can be found here.

If you would like to talk to me personally about making a larger gift or about making a short-term loan (especially if you have questions related to the legal actions we are in the middle of), please text my cell (include your name and why you are texting, as well as which time zone you are in), and I will make the time to call you back: 1-415-609-3182.

If you are very new to our work and also new to the issue of childhood Lead poisoning prevention, I would like to encourage you to watch the documentary film that I directed and produced. The film has music donated by The Who, Tom Waits, Maia Sharp, The Rubin Brothers and others — and Jon Fishman (drummer of the band Phish) is an Executive Producer of the project. The film also includes footage of my presentation with Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan in 2016 (see photo below).

Legal attacks against our work prevented us from having the financial resources available to release the film through formal theatrical channels, however we posted our final “fine cut” of the film online as it provides critical information and resources for parents looking to protect their children from Lead exposure. The film is a 92-minute long crash course for anyone wanting to learn more about the issue of childhood lead poisoning and the importance of Lead Poisoning Prevention (Primary Prevention). I also often do presentations hosted by universities, health departments (state and cities), and hospitals during which we show the film and have a post screening discussion with a panel of experts. Through these presentations doctors, nurses, and educators often get CEUs for attending — so it is a great teaching tool for professionals in related fields as well. Here’s a free & commercial-free link where you can watch the film: https://vimeo.com/156169133

And with that — here are all the ways you can send financial support:
Zelle: Testing@LeadSafeMama.com
Venmo: @LeadSafeMama
PayPal: Testing@LeadSafeMama.com
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/9c3605b5a
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/leadsafemama/membership
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Thank you.

If you are new here you may also want to begin exploring our work (there are over 5,500 articles with product test results and additional research and information on this website) using the round navigation buttons at the top of this page OR by using the search bar or the website menu – each of which also can be found near the top of every page of the site.

Tamara Elise Rubin
Owner — Lead Safe Mama, LLC
& The Lead Safe Mama Team