Vintage Americana

Grace’s Teaware Purple Flower Saucer: 30,000 ppm Lead [For Context: 90 ppm Lead is unsafe in children’s items.]

Grace’s Teaware Purple Flower Saucer: 30,000 ppm Lead [For Context: 90 ppm Lead is unsafe in children’s items.]

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When tested with an XRF instrument the Grace’s Teaware saucer pictured here (with purple flowers with green leaves – additional photos below) had the following readings: Green Leaves: Lead (Pb): 30,000 +/- 800 ppm Chromium (Cr): 3,060 +/- 170 ppm Antimony (Sb): 157 +/- 29 ppm Tin (Sn): 84 +/- 23 ppm Zinc (Zn): 11,100…

#AskTamara: How can I tell if my vintage Tupperware plastic cups are toxic? By Color? By Shape? By Age?

#AskTamara: How can I tell if my vintage Tupperware plastic cups are toxic? By Color? By Shape? By Age?

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New post! First in a series of four that I will be doing to try to draw some distinctions between the Tupperware pieces WITH toxicants (Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and Arsenic) and those without. If you have any information or links to help inform this conversation (for example information about years made for certain model numbers?)…

Vintage Tupperware GREEN bowl: 2,780 ppm Lead + 234 ppm Arsenic (both metals are poisonous to humans)

Vintage Tupperware GREEN bowl: 2,780 ppm Lead + 234 ppm Arsenic (both metals are poisonous to humans)

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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 used…

Vintage Fisher Price Little People Green Plastic Man: 101 ppm Cadmium + 30 ppm Mercury

Vintage Fisher Price Little People Green Plastic Man: 101 ppm Cadmium + 30 ppm Mercury

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Vintage Fisher Price Little People Green Man. Green plastic body with peach plastic head and painted on face and hair. Year of Manufacture Unknown (presumed c. 1970s). To see more vintage Fisher Price items I have tested, click here. The XRF test results for this exact item (pictured above) are as follows: Painted Head/Face –…

This vintage (c. 1940s?) Hanson Nursery Scale captures the scope of the historic pervasive footprint of lead paint in one single simple object.

This vintage (c. 1940s?) Hanson Nursery Scale captures the scope of the historic pervasive footprint of lead paint in one single simple object.

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This vintage (c. 1940s?) Hanson Nursery Scale captures the scope of the historic pervasive footprint of lead paint in one single simple object… …a BABY SCALE painted with leaded paint. Really I don’t know that any more needs to be said about this. The paint on this piece was just about 4,500 ppm lead when…