What We Do

Lead Testing At Home

The alarming news about lead-contaminated products is enough to make any parent wonder:  Is my child's doll exposing her to lead?  Does this piece of costume jewelry contain lead?  What about this lunchbox and that baby bib?

These nagging questions make parenting so much harder than it ought to be.

Parents:  you can answer these questions for yourself by testing your child's products.  Testing is the simplest and most effective way to keep your children safe from lead.

Having found products that contain lead and are marked "Lead Safe," we urge parents not to rely on labels.  Many items such as vinyl products, metal jewelry, and painted toys made of wood and plastic may contain lead.  There is one way to be certain whether your child's items contain lead:  test them.

You can identify lead contaminated products the same way we do.  Here's how:

Purchase a Lead Testing Kit

Today, most hardware stores sell lead testing kits.  If your local hardware store (we recommend independent, family-owned businesses) does not carry the kits, you can also purchase them over the internet.

We often use a brand called "LeadCheck", which sells testing swabs for about four dollars per swab.  Another brand we have used is called "The Lead Detective."  You can only use the swabs one time, and before you use them it is important to store them at room temperature in a dry area and out of the reach of children.

General Testing Instructions for LeadCheck Swabs

Prepare the swab
Find a clean, easily washable area of the object to be tested.

To prevent the testing chemicals from touching you, we suggest you wear latex non-vinyl gloves.

Prepare to break the swab.  

The lead check swabs contain 2 glass containers of liquids.  These must be broken to mix the testing chemicals together.  Crush parts "a" and "b".  Once you have broken the containers, shake the swab for several seconds to mix the contents.

Swab the product
To swab the product, rub the brush side of the swab on the surface of the product you are testing.  As you rub, squeeze out some of the liquid from inside the swab. When it comes out, the color of the shaken swab should be a light amber yellow. 

If the tip of the swab is the yellow amber color of the testing liquid or if it remains white, the product most likely has no lead on its surface.  If the tip of the swab turns any red or pinkish color, the product most likely has lead on its surface. 

Remember to wash the item that you tested with soap and warm water.

For Vinyl Surfaces

Baby bibs
Rub and lightly squeeze the swab over all the surface areas of the bib. Swab all vinyl parts of the bib (this can be the back of the bib, the front of the bib, or the pocket.)

Lunchboxes
Rub and lightly squeeze the swab over the inside and outside of the vinyl lunch box. 

For Jewelry

Rub and lightly squeeze the swab so that the test liquid can be blotted onto different areas of the jewelry.  Proceed to rub the tip of the test swab on the surface for up to a minute.

Some examples of suspicious kinds of jewelry: (a) Dull looking metal. (b) Fake pearls with pearlescent coating. (c) Plastic/vinyl cords or bracelets.

Swabbing Pearl Necklaces

The painted coating on fake pearls has been found to have high levels of lead.  Before you swab, you may want to file or scrape a small section of the paint so that you test what is beneath the coating.  This coating will often wear off during regular use exposing your child to whatever lies beneath it.