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 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic). All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable. Items are tested multiple times to confirm the test results for each component tested. Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February of 2023 (March 2023 print edition).
January 6, 2023
Updated: September 13, 2023 — Wednesday
September 13, 2023 Update: In short, none of these types of products (reactive agent home test kits that purport to turn red in the presence of Lead) should be used for testing consumer goods. The Chinese-branded knockoffs (image above) should not be used for ANY Lead testing. Our current choice for Lead-paint testing (for homeowners/ tenants, etc.) is the Scitus brand product (the original, USA-made product that Chinese companies “knocked off” to make the above product). Please read the full update here: https://tamararubin.com/2023/09/scitus-the-best-currently-available-home-test-kit-for-testing-house-paint-for-lead/.
Original (slightly updated) Article from January 6, 2023
Updated: April 2023
I have written this piece because parents everywhere have (for more than two years now) been contacting me in a panic — because something they bought for their children (something they were certain was Lead-free), has allegedly “tested ‘positive’ for Lead” with these swabs (which they purchased on Amazon because they were the less expensive option, compared to the 3M LeadCheck® test kits — the “gold standard” for reactive-agent Lead-test kits).
Important points to note:
- In response to the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC, the company that manufactures the Scitus-brand kit is currently (April of 2023) working on reformulating these products so that they work better. In the way the product has been formulated (for products available for purchase in April 2023 and before), there is too much of an opportunity for user error, especially if consumers use them for testing a variety of items, which is an off-label use that these tests were not designed for.
- “Better Than Nothing?” Some Lead Safe Mama readers have asked, “But aren’t these home test kits better than nothing — for testing consumer goods?”
- My answer to this is that — as they are currently formulated — these tests are decidedly not better than nothing for testing consumer goods, given that the false positives AND false negatives are causing too much panic and misinformation among the people who use the kits … and the people who follow those people on social media! (The false information can spread very quickly, causing quite a bit of unwarranted alarm, and also potentially damaging companies who are actually producing Lead-free products that erroneously test positive with these faulty kits.)
- False Positives: These home test kits for Lead give false positives on many, many substrates, including several different types of metal substrates like (specifically but not limited to) Zinc — and possibly also Copper. Because of this, as currently formulated, they have zero reliability for testing consumer goods — especially (again) given the widespread panic and misinformation spread on social media (including in parenting groups and on parenting-related pages) that seems to accompany many of the false positives found.
- For example: Parents tested a crane toy with one of these tests — link — and thought it was positive for unsafe Levels of Lead, when in fact it has zero Lead in any components.
- Another example is the Kyte Baby sleep sack fiasco that unfolded on TikTok in February of 2023 (the original videos were taken down once the creator realized the test kit was faulty, but some of the quotes from that video can still be found)!
- One Common “False Positive” Scenario: If a painted item has a Zinc substrate, such as a zipper coated with Titanium Dioxide-based paint — as many zippers are — using one of these tests might result in a false positive from the exposed Zinc substrate on that item (areas of the zipper where the paint has chipped). So the consumer doing the testing may wrongly assume that the surface paint of the item tested is positive for unsafe levels of Lead (this is what happened with the Kyte Baby sleep sack zipper testing).
- False Negatives: These home test kits also often result in false negatives on many consumer goods — including dishes and vintage toys.
- This is the case with all reactive agent home test kits (for most consumer goods). These test kits were simply not designed to test consumer goods.
- Reactive-agent testing has been designed to be used for/ is only meant to be used for testing Lead in House Paint: As with the 3M LeadCheck® swabs, these reactive agent home test kits were initially designed for use on house paint (to determine if the paint on homes is Lead paint).
- Again, these kits were not designed to test consumer goods, and their use should be restricted to testing house paint for Lead and the off-brand (non-Scitus-brands) products should not be used under any circumstances.
At the moment, of the available choices on the market today, the only reactive agent test kits that work well and consistently are LeadCheck® swabs, which are only good for the specific applications they are designed for, such as use only on paint — with a high low threshold of detection of 600 ppm — but may also work on some types of consumer goods). Please read this for context if you want to know when it might be appropriate to use LeadCheck® swabs.
Amazon Links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on one of these links, we may receive a percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you. Please don’t buy the faulty test kits, tho!
Thank you for the warning on these. I had used these around my house. It turned color on our door knobs. I was quite upset and replaced most of them. Then saw this post, bought the 3M tests and retested. The 3M ones did not change color at all. Sounds like this common problem false positives? Will make sure to use only 3M going forward.
These tests contain sodium rhodizonate which reacts with many bivalent metals and forms various colored complexes. This is the same chemical the police often use to detect gunshot residue which has lead. [There are other tests for gunshot residue that detect nitrites. A paper by Feigl 1942 – Analytical Uses of Sodium Rhodizonate has a table of the various colors that may be obtained for different metals and how they change under neutral and acidic conditions. [I can send a copy if you’d like]. Often the variation in color in neutral vs acidic conditions will be helpful to distinguish between lead and Zinc. For example, these are expected to give brown-violet color when detecting zinc under neutral conditions (water) but no color under acidic conditions ( e.g. vinegar or HCl). Lead should test blue violet under neutral conditions and scarlet under acidic conditions. Cadmium should test brown red under all conditions. The colors are not easy to determine though because they look quite alike. And the testing of alloys becomes complicated. I tested something with a strong suspicion for lead and it turned blue-violet even with vinegar.
Interestingly, while wetting one of these the water dripped onto a bowl which quickly turned bright pink so I was convinced the crockery had lead. But plastic tupperware also tested positive and so did a glass jar. While it is possible that all of them have lead, it is quite unlikely. (I haven’t tested the Ikea plates that you showed had no lead, that will be interesting). Our water should not have lead as we had the lead pipes removed and our water has high mineral content – when the plumbers showed us the old lead pipes they were so thickly coated by calcium carbonate (?) that the pipe hole had halved. Then I sprayed the pink water with vinegar and the color completely disappeared instead of becoming scarlet or more intense indicating it was not lead in the first place. The reason why the color would become more intense is because Pb becomes more reactive in an acidic solution (ions).
While I do agree that these could create panic, people outside of the US do not have access to 3M tests and 3M tests are also designed only for paint. And pretty much nobody has access to an XRF instrument. I wish I could post the table here but happy to provide it so you can post it in case people continue using them for lack of any other options.
It did show that the paint in my room did not have lead (painted a couple of years before the UK banned lead paint but likely at a time when it was already being phased out). It did not show lead in older paint in an 100 year old house but I only swabbed around cracks and did not grind the paint etc. so it’s very possible that user error gave a false negative.
Tamara, thank you for the wonderful work that you do! I have learned a lot from you.
Aya
Thank you for sharing this! Please do email me the table: TamaraRubin@mac.com
Thanks for these details. My lead test swabs left a yellow residue (i.e. negative) in the collection dish, which turned alarmingly magenta with the addition of tap water. Following your hint I acidified with vinegar and the magenta immediately reverted to yellow, so I guess we have zinc
can you tell me if the French White Corningware round casserole dishes prior to year 2000 have lead? and the Thomas train roundhouse set with various cars prior to 2003 have lead? I bought it to keep my 2 year old busy while pregnant! Wash hoping to keep for grandchild.
Would these work for testing for lead in paint in a house? The 3M tests seem to be sold out everywhere.
3m seems to be having a huge shortage of their tests. What are your thoughts on these? Pro-Lab Lead Surface Test Kit
PRO-LAB Lead Surface Do It Yourself DIY Test Kit LS104 https://amzn.to/442qmX1
These are not at all accurate (to my knowledge) – especially not down to 5 ppm Lead.
t
Hello, I am very nervous because by chance (crawling with my baby) I spotted remainings of white paint on my reclaimed wood (old mill) table, underneath it. I tested it with the kit you don’t recommend (trying to get hold off the 3M). In two places the (white) paint turned pink. Would you still think there’s fair chance it is a false positive? Thank you very much.
Hello. I just reviewed the technical report on the 3M Lead Check test kits and was surprised to see that the false positive rate for a non-technical user is 98 percent. (P 23) . Even a technical operator gets 75% false positives. There is a table later in the report that appears to show that even of the lead level is zeeo, the test will come out positive 40% of the time. Am. Understanding this correctly and what are your thoughts about the high false positive rate? https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/3M-leadcheck-report.pdf
That is fundamentally industry-influenced propaganda. It is a subject I need to break down and discuss in detail. The “propaganda” stems primarily from the fact that they are considering positives for Lead levels above 600 ppm (but below 5,000 ppm) “false positives” when the test was actually originally designed to test for levels of 600 ppm and up (because the 1978 law limited lead in paint to 600 ppm.)
T
Hello Lead Safe Mama!
is the “3M™ 8 Swab LeadCheck™ White, Red And Black Kit” accurate for testing ceramics and glassware? I am
cleaning out vintage glassware from my family home’s attic and wondering if a vintage tea set with a luster orange finish is safe to use. This kit is supposedly accurate for not only paint but ceramic.
Thank you!
sincerely,
MJ
Hello! They really are not accurate for most consumer goods -read this for context:
https://tamararubin.com/2017/02/ask-tamara-q-can-i-test-my-dishes-for-lead-with-a-leadcheck-swab-a-sometimes-but-not-always-click-to-read-more/
Tamara
Thank you for the info
I really want to test antiques in my home. What can I buy to test consumer goods that isn’t a knock off? I’m concerned as my toddlers lead levels in her blood weren’t alarming, but present.