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Over the past three and half decades I've had serious concerns with regard to how hygienically safe is it to put day after day a saxophone mouthpiece made of metal in your mouth.

I’ve also had concerns as the amount of gold that is actually plated on both domestic and foreign mouthpieces and their related health issues.   

Most recently we’ve seen a great number of Chinese and far eastern manufacturers of metal mouthpiece enter the United States.

We decided to have several Chinese mouthpieces that we purchased on AMAZON tested both for toxicity and gold content.

We used three New England labs to do various tests.

LAB 1 is actually a renown jewelry plating organization we have used for over thirty years to plate all our saxophone mouthpieces. They retain an on site lab with specialized Xray equipment.

LAB 2 is also another New England jewelry plating company and has some of the most advanced testing equipment to analyze gold content.

LAB 3 a well known New England testing lab that is ISO/IEC 17025-2005 Accredited 

 They have  state of the art testing and analysis equipment that includes :

A) X-ray Fluorescence (XRF)

B) Visible and UV Spectroscopy

C) Gas Chromatography(GC)

D) Gas Cbromatography, 

 E) Mass Spectroscopsy

( GS -MS) 

F) Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

(AAS)

Below are the test results

from each one of the three labs

FIRST

AND FORMOST

THE CHINESE MOUTHPIECE

(mfg. gy AIBUY /YIBUY TENOR MOUTHPIECE)

WERE PURCHASED FROM AMAZON & HAD 

ZERO AMOUNT

OF GOLD PLATING

(confirmed by lab 2 and 3)

CLICK HERE TO SEE ORIGINAL

(LAB 2 REPORT IMAGE)

BOTH LABS ALSO FOUND THE FOLLOWING 

LEAD : There was a specific amount of lead bromine, and tantalum in the Amazon Chinese imported piece.

Lead accumulation in the body is the result of anthropogenic (human) use, which has concentrated lead throughout our environment. It is found today in everyone's body.

The main exposure route is oral, especially in small children, as they have hand-to-mouth behaviors that increase their risks.

The respiratory route allows exposure to lead. Accumulation can result in adverse health effects, many people are exposed to levels of lead that are "orders of magnitude" greater than that of pre-industrial levels.  

Bromine: The same Amazon

AIBAY /YIBUY Chinese

mouthpieces had Bromine.

Bromine is toxic to the human body and is a  carcinogenic. Bromine can build up in your body and take over cell iodine receptors because the atomic structure of bromine is so similar to iodine that the human body is mistaken.

                                     SOME OF THE HEATLH RELATED ISSUES ARE:

a)Disrupts Thyroid Function.

b)Increased Risk of Preterm Birth and Birth Defects

c)slows Neural and Cognitive Development.

d)Cognitive Failure.

e) Contributes to Mental Health Illness?

 Bromine is an antihistamine that reduces the effects of natural chemical histamine in the body. Histamine can produce symptoms of sneezing, itching, watery eyes, and runny nose.



Tantalum:  It also had Tantalum.

Tantalum pentoxide is a colorless solid that reacts with oxidizers and can cause explosiins and fire. Tantalum is moderately toxic and if manufactuing processing involves cutting, metling or grinding, resulting in high concentrations of fumes or dust may cause health

related issues. 

CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE of TIP SIZE

ZINC TOXICITY:

Occurs when one ingest exorbitant amount of zinc –containing materials. Zinc can be harmful resulting in nausea, headaches, abdominal cramps, vomiting and loss of appetite. Excessive intake of zinc can cause long-term health effects, including reduced immune function, low levels of high-density lipoprotein and copper deficiency

CLICK HERE TO SEE ORIGINAL 

         (LAB REPORT IMAGE)





 RESULTS OF ISO INDEPENDENT LAB 3

The instrument mouthpiece was not gold plated.   THE  XRF assay confirms that the base material is lead No after grinding of the sample was possible on the back rim since we were unable to fit the sample into our XRF instrument in the upright position. The before grinding results were adequate to determine that the sample did not have a gold plate and was most likely PVD coated

<----CLICK HERE TO SEE ORIGINAL 

         (LAB REPORT IMAGE)

THE FIRST TWO LABS (Lab 1 and Lab 2)

As noted above the first two labs plate jewelry and mouthpieces for the trade. The third lab is non-related ISO rated industry lab. They test toys, coffee cups mats etc.the list is endless.  

Each one of the jewelry/mouthpiece platers have there own in house lab with sophicated X-Ray equipment to measure the amount of gold and silver as well as toxicity that is part of or plated on to jewerly --and in our case a saxophone mouthpiece

We also used that third indpendent lab ISO rated to "dig deeper" in analyzing not only the gold / silver content but also to find any toxic material or chemicals  that the piece may have.

LAB NO 1

In 2017 We purchased a Chinese gold plated mouthpiece and recently had it tested by our lab 1 seeking the actual amount of gold that was plated on to the mouthpiece.

The actual amount plated on the piece is les than 2 mills. The term used in the trade for this type of  gold plating  is called  "flash gold" and used to plate costume jewerly or junk jewelry.

Wear ability is for the short  term.

 CLICK HERE TO SEE ORIGINAL ----->

(LAB 1 REPORT)

 LAB 2:

A customer provided us with this mouthpiece to be analyzed. It is also believed to be of a Chinese origin. The analysis was done in  December .  No metal content analysis was made and it has 2 mills of gold.

<------ CLICK HERE TO SEE ORIGINAL 

LAB 2 Report - GOLD CONTENT

 According to information from the CPSC, a few specific materials are prohibited from use in toys. Lead and phthalates are potentially harmful materials that are very strictly limited for use in toys and children’s products.

We plan to continue test both the amount of gold and toxicity levels of imported and domestic mouthpieces over the next few months

 Results will be poster here.

 STAY TUNED