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Quick note from Tamara Rubin:

It is the position of Lead Safe Mama, LLC that prenatal vitamins should not test positive for Lead at levels above 2 parts per billion (ppb) (or less conservatively, definitely not at levels above 4 ppb). Prenatal vitamins should also not test positive for levels of Arsenic and Cadmium at-or-above 5 ppb.

All federal agencies agree there is no safe level of Lead exposure for humans. This is especially true for babies developing in their mother’s womb. The impact of Lead is also cumulative over one’s lifetime (starting with conception). Scientific research has established that even trace Lead exposure (levels far below those previously known or thought to cause harm) can cause long-term negative health impacts, including fertility complications, birth complications, and negative birth outcomes (including low birthweight in newborns). You can learn more about the concern for impacts of even trace exposure for women of childbearing age at this link.

It is for the above reasons that we hope the manufacturers learning this information about their prenatal vitamins (from the collaborative scientific inquiry the Lead Safe Mama community has coordinated — conducting independent, truly third-party laboratory testing of popular products) will take all possible actions to significantly reduce the amount of Lead in these products.

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Key points to note (with the prenatal vitamin testing we are conducting):

1. While there is no safe level of Lead exposure, and while the levels of Lead we are finding (across the board in prenatal vitamins) is concerning, it is important to note that IF the Lead in your prenatal vitamin were your only source of Lead exposure, it is not likely this would result in a positive blood Lead level (BLL) test. 
2. There are a lot of factors at play here, but the most important one is that most BLL tests for women of childbearing age are not testing down to a level of sensitivity that would detect a BLL of 0.1 or 0.2 (for example) that might be caused from daily ingestion of a Lead-contaminated vitamin.
3. Most BLL tests for women of childbearing age have a low threshold of detection of 5.0 (micrograms of Lead per deciliter of blood), while some have a low threshold of detection of 1.0, 2.0, or 3.3 (depending on the testing methodology and instrumentation used).
   • Dr. Rabito’s research (from 2011, published in 2012) found correlative impacts for birth, pregnancy, and fertility with BLL’s as low as 0.43 micrograms of Lead per deciliter of blood.
4. We still recommend you consider asking your doctor for a Blood Lead Level test — both as a pre-conception measure and a prenatal measure, so you at least have a baseline in your medical chart (even if the low threshold of detection for the testing is too high to detect food-source exposures. You can read more about that here and here).
5. We also recommend you talk to your doctor about pharmaceutical grade prenatal vitamins (if a prenatal vitamin is specifically recommended in your situation) and about the possibility of maximizing your diet to emphasize dietary sources of the vitamins and minerals most beneficial for your pregnancy.

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For those new to the Lead Safe Mama 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 four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for six product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Please check out our press page to see some of the news coverage of our work – link here.

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This is an ad-free article.

Advertising and affiliate income help Lead Safe Mama, LLC cover the costs of the work we do here (independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy). We have removed ads from most of our more widely-read articles (and newly published articles, too — like this one!) to make them easier for you to read. In addition to supporting this work by starting any shopping you might be doing with a click on our affiliate links, if you would like to support the independent consumer goods testing and childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC by making a contribution (which will also help us keep our more widely-read articles ad-free), click here. Thank you!

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Important Background: What is an Action Level?

Please note the following key points:

The original lab report for this product is below (at the bottom of this page).

The graphic above shows the levels of metals detected in this product (in red) along with the low threshold of detection (in orange, above the action levels discussed/ or in green, below the action levels discussed) for each metal not detected with the laboratory testing Lead Safe Mama, LLC had completed for this product. The numbers are juxtaposed (in blue) to the “Action Level” proposed by the medical and scientific community in 2021 as part of the Baby Food Safety Act. For this round of testing, SimpleLab (our laboratory testing provider) had a change of labs and their low threshold of detection is slightly higher than in previous testing rounds.

• These 2021 levels were proposed as “Action Levels” because they are (in fact) protective of human health.
• An “Action Level” is NOT the same as a “Maximum Allowable Level.”
  • Many food manufacturers misinterpret guidance on heavy metals to mean “allowable levels” and consider it reasonable for products to test positive below these levels.
  • This is a (perhaps intentional?) misunderstanding/ misinterpretation the food industry makes — a misunderstanding that food manufacturers use to justify the presence of heavy metals in products.
• Heavy metals accumulate in the body.
  • It is the cumulative/ aggregate impact of heavy metal exposure (over a lifetime) that makes even small/ incidental/ seemingly trivial exposures particularly damaging and dangerous. You can read more about that here.
• Once a food product has the amount of heavy metal (Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, or Arsenic) noted (above) as the “Action Level,” that product is officially considered (by the scientific and medical community) unsafe for consumption by children as toxicants (found at-or-above these levels) are in the range of heavy metal levels that have been demonstrated to cause lasting harm.
• Action Levels are unrelated to serving size.
  • Action Levels are relevant for any amount of a food product that may be consumed (any quantity of the food in question).
  • PPB (parts per billion/ ppb) measurements are a percentage (albeit a very small percentage) and apply to any quantity of the food product tested.
  • For more discussion about serving size considerations (and why relying on “serving size” to limit toxicant exposure is not a relevant metric/ not a metric protective of human health), read this article.
• These “Action Levels” proposed in 2021 are the levels at which the scientific and medical community believe the manufacturer (or government) needs to take ACTION to fix the problem.
  • One “Action” would be for the manufacturer to take steps to reduce the levels of toxicants in the food product.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to cease sales of the product until the product could be made safe.
  • Another “Action” would be for the manufacturer to inform the public that a specific food product has an unsafe level of the metal detected at-or-above the “Action Level” — making a highly-visible public announcement regarding which relevant batches of the product should be recalled/ no longer consumed.
• The Action Levels proposed with the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 were not arbitrary toxicant levels, but were proposed because they are the levels most protective of human health. However, the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 was not passed into law.
• Regardless of the fact the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 never passed into law — and it is therefore legal to have foods and supplements marketed for consumption by children test positive for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic at-or-above these levels — these Action Levels still reflect the current (modern/ relevant) advice of the medical and scientific communities as levels both achievable by the industry and safeguards of infant and toddler health.
• Food and supplement industry lobbyists fought against formalizing these proposed “Action Levels” as a government standard, alleging the levels were unachievable.
• The list of safer choices (below) clearly demonstrate these Action Levels as achievable across a range of food types (salt, flour, coffee, oatmeal, chia seeds, hemp seeds, soy milk, packaged fruit-based snacks, beverages, and more).
• The legitimacy of these levels as “Action Levels”/ “Levels of Concern” (even though they were not adopted as law) is mirrored by the legitimacy of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ level of concern for Lead in water, which is 1 ppb despite the FDA’s official “level of concern” for Lead in water being 15 ppb (you can read more about that here).

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 “Simply Not Achievable”

To reiterate: While the packaged, processed food industry would have consumers (and the government) believe the standards proposed in 2021 are unachievable, this industry position (an oft-rearticulated response to nearly every set of laboratory test results for food and supplements that we have published to date) is simply not true. It is possible to make safer processed, packaged food products and supplements that fall well below the safety limits for toxicants proposed within the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021. To wit, several of the products listed below tested non-detect for Lead with the low threshold of detection being “less than 1.5 ppb.”

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Below is a list of links to the safer products we have identified with laboratory testing. To see the lab report for any of the products below, put the brand name in the search bar at the top of any page of this website (and scroll down to the bottom of the related article). To see the lab report for the product pictured above, please scroll down to the bottom of this article.

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Products (foods & supplements) that have tested non-detect for all Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, & Arsenic (with the limits of detection noted in the lab report for the specific product listed, note: There is some variation in the low threshold of detection for some of these lab reports):

1. Sea Salt (Oregon USA): https://amzn.to/4dcbk5L
2. Organic Einkorn Flour (Italy): https://amzn.to/3LIqxix
3. Organic, Gluten-Free, Sprouted Rolled Oats (Canada): https://amzn.to/3WIQ1BN
4. Organic, Gluten-Free Chia Seeds (Mexico): https://amzn.to/3YvE7xC
5. Organic Espresso Roast Ground Coffee (Multi-Country Origin, Non-USA): https://amzn.to/3yo1eiL  
6. Grape Tonic: https://amzn.to/4cjFYZu
7. Organic Hemp Seeds: https://amzn.to/4e05RP9
8. Organic Apple Sauce Pouch: https://amzn.to/3XhWYLe
9. Organic Layered Fruit Bars — Strawberry Banana Flavor: https://amzn.to/3WQEekA
10. Organic Layered Fruit Bars — Raspberry Lemonade Flavor: https://amzn.to/3XcFsIp
11. Organic Soy Milk: https://amzn.to/4dwev8l
12. Organic Perilla Seed Oil (Korea): https://amzn.to/3NDt7Yc
13. ByHeart Infant Formula (USA-Made): https://amzn.to/48DJjTb
14. Kendamil Organic Follow-On Milk (European/ British Toddler Formula, for 6-12 months): Link (not available on Amazon)
15. Holle Bio Goat Stage 2 Infant Formula (for 6-10 months, organic, European – Swiss/German/Austrian): Link (not available on Amazon)
    • The Stage 3 version of this product (not yet tested, but should test similarly): https://amzn.to/3BVU7zI
16. Nature’s Path Envirokidz Organic Panda Puffs: https://amzn.to/4fo1crf
17. Chosen Foods 100% Avocado Oil (not organic): https://amzn.to/3YDZSuv
18. Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Fish Oil: https://amzn.to/48q1j2V
19. Mary Ruth’s Organic Toddler Multivitamin Liquid Drops with Iron: https://amzn.to/3YPhcgx
20. Stand by for more!

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Products that tested positive for one or more toxicants, but at a level considered safe by all standards (with the limits of detection noted in the lab report for the specific product listed, note: There is some variation in the low threshold of detection for some of these lab reports):

1. Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil — Organic (Postive for Traces of Arsenic): https://amzn.to/3BVQYQa
2. Stand by!

Amazon links are affiliate links. 

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Published: October 27, 2024
Sunday

Hello! We are working on publishing a LOT of test results very quickly this month.

We will be updating this section of each article (with more information about the specific product and other similar products for context) as time permits, but we wanted to ensure the greater Lead Safe Mama community (and the general public) had access to this scientific data (about foods and supplements in their home) as quickly as possible.

Please scroll down to see the full laboratory test report for the product pictured above. Thank you for your patience.

As there are almost no reasonable safety thresholds proposed for toxicants (heavy metals) consumed by adults (in foods and supplements), our focus is (as always) on the health of children. The available proposed safety thresholds (and guidance) for foods consumed by adults are not set at levels protective of human health and are therefore not relevant to the work we do here at Lead Safe Mama, LLC.

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This is the Lead Safe Mama Amazon affiliate link to purchase a test kit similar to what we use for our laboratory testing.

To see more articles related to the laboratory testing for foods and supplements Lead Safe Mama, LLC is organizing (including background on this initiative and safer food choices and guidelines), click the pink square below. To see the full, independent, third-party, laboratory report for the product pictured above, please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

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Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on a Lead Safe Mama, LLC Amazon affiliate link, Lead Safe Mama, LLC may receive a percentage of what you spend — at no extra cost to you.

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Lab report for the product pictured above: