My standing rule: test with a kit, not a kid.
2025 was the year "Closer to Zero" became real. FDA published its final Action Levels for lead in baby and young child foods. California's AB-899 disclosure provision went live. The EPA TSCA enforcement landscape shifted under a new administration. And the lead-detection consumer market got a meaningful regulatory clarification when the EPA approved the first TSCA Low Volume Exemption for methylammonium bromide — the active ingredient in modern fluorescence-spectroscopy lead tests.
For background context: essentially every American alive between 1940 and 1985 carried blood lead levels we'd now classify as elevated. We're still living through the long tail of that era. The point of paying attention to current news is to stop adding to a body burden that already exists, not to spiral about every new headline.
Quick note before getting into the news: the public-health establishment doesn't always love how I frame this stuff — calm dose math, "test with a kit not a kid," focus on the source rather than the headline. I've been told to soften my language. I've been uninvited from rooms. I get it. But the year-in-review framing helps separate the headlines that actually changed something from the ones that just generated traffic.
FDA Closer to Zero — final action levels
On January 6, 2025, the FDA issued its final guidance on action levels for lead in processed food intended for babies and young children. The numbers had been in draft form since 2022 under the Closer to Zero framework; January 2025 made them final.
- 10 PPB lead for fruits, vegetables (excluding single-ingredient root vegetables), mixtures, yogurts, custards, single-ingredient meats
- 20 PPB lead for single-ingredient root vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes — soil uptake makes a lower level technically infeasible) and dry infant cereals
Industry compliance with the draft action levels at end of 2024 was approximately 97% for standard produce, 88% for root vegetables, 91% for infant cereals. The January 2025 finalization codified the framework that industry was largely already meeting.
Sources: FDA Closer to Zero; for our deeper coverage see our Closer to Zero retrospective.
California AB-899 disclosure goes live
The disclosure provision of California's baby-food heavy-metal law (AB-899) went into effect January 1, 2025. Manufacturers were required to publicly publish monthly heavy-metal test results — including via QR codes on packaging. Major national brands largely complied by deadline; smaller brands and supplement-adjacent products lagged. Several follow-up enforcement actions are pending in the California Attorney General's review pipeline.
CPSC warning on high-lead faucets sold on Amazon
In June 2025, the CPSC issued public warnings about brass and bronze plumbing fixtures sold on Amazon and other online marketplaces with lead content meaningfully exceeding the federal "lead-free" 0.25% threshold. Most identified products were imported residential bathroom and kitchen faucets at low price points, sold without NSF/ANSI 61 or 372 certification. For background see our CPSC faucet warning retrospective.
NIOSH lead-sheathed telecom cable findings
In 2025 NIOSH issued findings documenting significant lead exposure risks to telecom workers handling lead-sheathed cables — particularly during cable cuts, manhole entries, and decommissioning operations. The findings followed the 2023 WSJ investigation and represent the formal occupational-health agency response. For background see our telecom cables retrospective.
CDC LEPAC adult-lead recommendations
In December 2024 (effective 2025), the CDC Lead Exposure and Prevention Advisory Committee (LEPAC) issued recommendations treating adult lead exposure on par with major modifiable cardiovascular risk factors — putting it in the same risk register as smoking, hypertension, and diabetes. The recommendations cited the Lanphear 2018 cohort showing dose-response cardiovascular and all-cause mortality from sustained low-level lead exposure. For background see our LEPAC retrospective.
TSCA enforcement and the methylammonium bromide question
The 2025 TSCA enforcement landscape shifted noticeably. EPA opened multiple investigations into chemical-substance import compliance and (separately) issued the first TSCA Low Volume Exemption for methylammonium bromide (CH3NH3Br, CAS 6876-37-5) — the active ingredient in modern fluorescence-spectroscopy lead tests. The LVE was issued December 19, 2025, to Fluoro-Spec Inc. for production of up to 180 kg/year (approximately 375,000 bottles of consumer reagent).
The regulatory clarification matters for the broader consumer lead-test category. Methylammonium-bromide perovskite chemistry has been the cleanest emerging consumer detection method since the Helmbrecht/Noorduin 2018 Nature Chemistry paper. The 2025 LVE made the U.S. consumer market for this chemistry compliant for the first time. The enforcement landscape for unregistered MABr products (including imports) remains active.
For background on the chemistry see our spray that makes lead glow and glowing lead tests guides.
Other 2025 lead news
- December 15, 2025: FDA issued an industry letter on recall compliance after observations from an infant formula recall related to an outbreak of infant botulism.
- December 2025: FDA issued warning letters to several retailers for failures to effectuate recalls of adulterated infant formula at retail.
- July 9, 2025: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced the de minimis exemption no longer applies to FDA-regulated products, requiring all imported food, dietary supplements, and cosmetics to be declared and properly documented for FDA review. This affects spice and supplement imports particularly.
- December 23, 2025: EPA announced expansion of imports investigative capacity targeting illegal pesticide and chemical smuggling operations across multiple sectors.
- Multiple state-level baby-food and prenatal-vitamin disclosure bills advanced (NY, NJ, MD, modeled on California AB-899).
The takeaway from 2025
2025 was the year the framework of the past three years became enforceable rule-of-the-road. Closer to Zero became binding action levels. AB-899 became binding disclosure. NIOSH cable findings became formal occupational-health record. EPA TSCA LVE made the modern lead-test chemistry compliant. The enforcement direction across agencies converged on import compliance, recall effectiveness, and chemical-substance verification.
The realistic household action for 2025: scan the baby-food QR codes; check the FDA recall database before buying imported single-spice products; verify NSF/ANSI 53 on your filter and NSF/ANSI 61 + 372 on your faucet; replace pre-1978 lead service lines via your utility under LCRI; test surface lead with a fluorescence-spectroscopy reagent like Fluoro-Spec. Test with a kit, not a kid.
For dose context — what every PPB number from a recall actually translates to in your child's daily µg of lead — use bloodleadcalculator.com, 700+ food items mapped to FDA Total Diet Study data.
Key facts (2025)
- FDA Closer to Zero finalized: Jan 6, 2025 — 10 PPB / 20 PPB action levels for baby and young child foods
- California AB-899 disclosure live: Jan 1, 2025 — public QR-coded testing data
- CPSC high-lead faucet warning: June 2025 — Amazon-sold uncertified imports
- NIOSH telecom cable findings: 2025 — formal occupational record
- EPA TSCA LVE for MABr (Fluoro-Spec): Dec 19, 2025 — first compliant U.S. consumer perovskite-test chemistry approval
- FDA recall enforcement letters: Dec 2025 — retailer non-compliance with infant formula recall