This past January (2017), Tamara Rubin, a mother, blogger, and an expert in lead testing, was hired by ‘Shannon,’ blogger of the Natural Baby Mama, to test sippy cups and baby bottles for lead. Among those that came up positive for lead, is a bottle by Green Sprouts. Tamara Rubin sent her findings straight to iPlay, the parent company of Green Sprouts, and informed her readers via a blog post. Natural Baby Mama also posted the findings that she hired Tamara to test and a bit later, Carissa Bonham shared them on her blog as well. Green Sprouts responded by sending both Tamara and Carissa Cease and Desist Letters, threatening legal action.

Here are both Tamara’s and Carissa’s letters.

According to iPlay, “Our top priority at i play., Inc. is the health and happiness of the children we create products for. Since 1982, we have been paying close attention to the importance of using natural materials, as well as avoiding potentially harmful substances in the manufacturing of our products.” If this is the case, wouldn’t they want to commend these bloggers for wanting to also make sure products are safe for all children? Why, instead, did they send letters to threaten them, letters that do not cite any specific reasons or wording for which either blogger did anything legally wrong?

Something Doesn’t make sense here. As seen below, once these results came in, they issued a recall. Shannon’s efforts in informing parents led to this news story:

 

Timeline and Lead Numbers as Provided by Carissa Bonham

“Late January: Tamara tested the cups with an XRF. Gets a reading of 3003 PPM lead on the paint on the glass.

Jan 30: Tamara sent a letter to Green Sprouts to notify of results. The mom (Natural Baby Mama) who owned the cup also contacted.

Feb 10: Green Sprouts issued a recall.

Feb 11: Green Sprouts takes back the recall. CBS news in San Francisco does their own investigation and gets a different sippy tested at Center for Environmental Health and gets a reading of more than 4000 PPM lead on the paint.

Feb 15: I (Carissa) published a blog post sharing both Tamara’s and CBS San Francisco’s test results.

Feb 22: Green Sprouts issues a statement saying their cups are safe and there will be no recall but because they are so great they will send you a clear glass insert if you ask for one.

Feb 23: I(Carissa) post an update to my blog about Green Sprout’s statement. I get a call from Green Sprouts’ lawyer demanding I take down the post because it is wrong. I ask which information is wrong so I can correct it. They refuse to discuss that and say I need to just take down the whole thing.

Feb 25: Both Tamara and myself (Carissa) receive certified letters delivered to our homes demanding we remove the information about this issue from our websites or social media.

While all this is happening at least a dozen moms that I know about also tested their cups with LeadCheck swabs and got positive readings. LeadCheck swabs will trigger positive if more than 600 PPM lead is present.”

Made in China

I am a big fan of companies who try their best to provide safe products and I understand that sometimes, metals or toxic chemicals can make their way into products (not that I find it acceptable) HOWEVER, there are ways to stay on top of this and to avoid it from happening, the first being to NOT have the products made in CHINA!!!

Over and over and over again, products made in China have found to contain lead. Even baby formula. This is scary. And I digress… but you all know how much I detest MOST products coming from there.

What You Can Do

• If you are as disappointed by iPlay’s response, let them know! You can call them (1-800-876-1574), leave a comment on their Facebook page and e-mail them.
• Share this post, Tamara’s post,  Carissa’s post and The Natural Baby Mama’s post so that other moms know!