Iridescent Glass

Dollar Store blue “carnival glass” bottle with golden leaf ornament: Negative for Lead, Arsenic, Mercury, & Antimony

November 23, 2020December 10, 2023

For those new to this 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 sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005). Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific method…

Dollar Store yellow “carnival glass” bottle with golden leaf ornament: positive for trace Cadmium & Antimony (at relatively safe levels.)

November 23, 2020December 10, 2023

Introduction (for those new to this website): Tamara Rubin is an independent advocate for consumer goods safety. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009 and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. Tamara uses XRF testing (a scientific…

Dollar Store purple “carnival glass” bottle with golden leaf ornament: positive for trace Lead, Cadmium & Antimony (at relatively safe levels.)

November 23, 2020

Introduction (for those new to this website): Tamara Rubin is an independent advocate for consumer goods safety. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009 and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. Tamara uses XRF testing (a scientific…

Good news for carnival glass fans! Vintage orange carnival glass sauce boat: non-detect for Lead!

November 2, 2020November 23, 2020

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Some good news for carnival glass fans! When tested with an XRF instrument the vintage orange carnival glass (pressed glass) sauce boat pictured here had the following readings: Iron (Fe): 2,726 +/- 237 ppm No other metals detected on the food surface! Bottom of glass tested negative for all metals! Thank you for reading and…

Giant Blue Glass Marble: 60 ppm Cadmium, 366 ppm Arsenic

November 11, 2018December 28, 2023

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This is a newer (c. 2015) large translucent blue glass marble with an iridescent rainbow finish. Given the nature of the way most colored glass is commonly produced, many marbles (and especially those with iridescent finishes) do have at least some level of detectable toxicants when tested with an XRF instrument. Some actually have quite…

#AskTamara: Do Glass Dragon Tears Have Lead? (Aka: Squashed Marbles, Glass Drops or Mancala Stones?)

August 13, 2018March 12, 2020

6 Comments

#AskTamara Question: Do dragon tears have lead? Answer: Some do and some do not. Given the nature of the way most colored glass is commonly produced, many dragon tears do have at least some lead, and some have quite high amounts of lead — at levels considered dangerous for children by current/modern regulatory standards. [Even…