Lead Safe Mama, LLC's Testing of One Degree's Organic Oats

8:07 pm Update - May 30, 2024 - Thursday

Just two hours after posting this GoFundMe, we met our goal for testing this product! Thank you! If you are coming across this GoFundMe after the fact & you still want to contribute in support of the advocacy work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC - contributions (in any amount) are always welcome. As soon as we have tested this product we will post the results here with an update. If you want to be among the first to see these test results you may want to make sure you are also following @LeadSafeMama on Social Media (we post primarily on Instagram and Facebook, but also periodically on Twitter, TikTok & Reddit).

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Original Campaign Text Below

Published: Thursday - May 30, 2024 (at about 6:06 p.m.)

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Hello! This is a fundraiser by Tamara Rubin - owner of Lead Safe Mama, LLC, a unique community-collaborative small business for childhood Lead-poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety. We are crowd-sourcing funds to conduct independent laboratory testing of specific food products for metallic toxicants – that people in the greater Lead Safe Mama online community have asked us to test.

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When we raise enough to test this specific product, we will buy the product and send the product to the laboratory for testing (using one of the test kits you can see on this link). We will then publish the test results on the Lead Safe Mama website (LeadSafeMama dot com ) shortly after the lab emails them to us.

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This is a GoFundMe to test this exact product*: One Degree Gluten Free Organic Sprouted Rolled Oats

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We are crowd-sourcing the costs of this laboratory testing, because most people who may be interested in testing a specific food item cannot afford to cover the full cost of the relatively expensive high-precision laboratory testing - which includes testing [down to single-digits parts per BILLION!] necessary to accurately evaluate toxicant concerns with any food item — but these same people may be able to contribute $5 or $10 towards the cost. In this way, we will be able to test more of the food items that Lead Safe Mama Community Members have requested that we test!

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For each of the laboratory food tests we are coordinating, we are specifically testing foods for the following metals:

1. Lead (Pb) - low threshold of detection: 5 ppb

2. Cadmium (Cd) - low threshold of detection: 10 ppb

3. Mercury (Hg) - low threshold of detection: 5 ppb

4. Arsenic (As) - low threshold of detection: 20 ppb

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If you make a contribution in support of this campaign, and have a suggestion for some additional specific product(s) you'd like to see tested, please include the product information in your comment with your contribution! Thank you in advance for your ideas [please include details about the exact product you would like to have tested (brand, flavor, packaging, size, etc.); if we get multiple requests for that exact product, we will create a GoFundMe to raise funds for having that product tested as well]!

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By crowd-sourcing the funding for the laboratory testing of these products, we are keeping the product testing truly independent — un-influenced by any corporate interests [or any other parties that might have any relationship to or interest in the specific product (or product category), or the interests of food industry producers, manufacturers, marketers, etc.).

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We are also crowd-sourcing the funding for this testing because that is the simplest way to gauge which products Lead Safe Mama community members are interested in having tested.

The crowd-funded testing we are doing each month is in addition to the testing of 8 food items per month that is being donated to the Lead Safe Mama community by the testing company we use - SimpleLab!

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Here's a brief article that discusses the intention behind the food testing we are doing.

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This link has a summary of all of the food testing we have done so far (we have tested - and published results for testing of - 14 food items as of the time of publishing this GoFundMe).

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This link has the overview article from the first batch of six food products that we tested.

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All Lead Safe Mama, LLC food testing is being done through SimpleLab. Here's a link to purchase one of their food testing kits if you are interested in testing your own food items separate from the food testing we are doing.

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For each of these laboratory tests of a single food product the budget is as follows:

• $195.00 - cost of laboratory testing for one specific food item

• $20.00 - $30.00 - cost of purchasing the product to be tested (+ shipping if necessary). In each case we will be purchasing the item directly from a grocery store, Amazon, or the manufacturer (if they sell direct-to-consumer). Some specialty items (like vitamins and supplements) may cost significantly more (to have enough of the product to send to the lab for testing), others will cost less. $20-$30 is the expected average range, based on the testing we have done so far.

• $15 - Fees (GoFundMe fees and other fees)

• $60 - $80 - Admin Assistance / Editing / Publishing for reporting test results on LeadSafeMama.com

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Total Anticipated Cost Range Per Product Tested:

$290.00 to $320.00

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Please Note:

1.) Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not a non-profit, so contributions are not tax-deductible. All funds raised are accounted for as income to Lead Safe Mama, LLC, and all expenses related to this testing are accounted for as special project expenses for Lead Safe Mama, LLC.

2.) I (Tamara Rubin) am not including a line item to cover my time in the budget for this food testing. I am volunteering my time for this testing. The line item for Admin costs includes funds to help cover the time of Lead Safe Mama, LLC's three current part-time helpers... Carissa, Katie and Ainslie.

3.) If more than $320.00 is raised via this GoFundMe, the additional funds raised will support our programs for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety (including helping to cover the cost of additional food testing we are doing).

4.) We will be posting specific fundraisers for different foods so that members of our greater community can essentially "vote with their pocket book" as to which food products they would like tested.

5.) Amazon links are Lead Safe Mama, LLC affiliate links. We are sharing the link to the food product (on Amazon) so you can see the exact product we are planning on testing with the funds raised from this campaign. If you purchase something on Amazon after clicking a Lead Safe Mama, LLC affiliate link - we may receive a percentage of what you spend (at no extra cost to you). Providing an affiliate link here helps us to raise funds in support of this work and should not be seen as an endorsement of any product that we intend to test with the funds raised via this GoFundMe.

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To see Lead Safe Mama, LLC's GoFundMe campaign set up for contributions to our general activities costs - including our legal defense fund (to help cover the costs of legal expenses when companies or other entities choose to challenge our work), please check out this link . We currently have about $271,500 in debts we are working to pay off (related to costs incurred directly or indirectly as a result of legal challenges against our work).

Thank you!