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Easy Wins · 06 · Adult & prenatal vitamins

What's actually in your prenatal?

Independent ICP-MS numbers for 25+ adult and prenatal multivitamins, Thorne, Ritual, Nature Made, Garden of Life, SmartyPants, Mary Ruth, AG1, New Chapter, PinkStork, One A Day, Dr. Green Mom, and the practitioner-channel brands. Real ppb. Real µg/day. The brands worth taking, the ones to skip, and where the data is genuinely missing.

Prenatals tested (LSM): 25+
Detect lead: ~75%
FDA IRL women: 7.7 µg/day
Prop 65 MADL: 0.5 µg/day

Lead Safe Mama 2024-2025 ICP-MS panel (chart updated April 2025), GAO 2024 prenatal report, ConsumerLab 2022, brand-published COAs.

Most prenatals detect lead at low ppb. Most stay under the FDA limit. The pattern matters more than any single brand.

The 2024 GAO report found lead in roughly half of prenatal multivitamins they sampled. A larger 150-product survey reported an average of 79 ppb, range up to 900 ppb, only ~15% below 10 ppb. Independent ICP-MS testing by Lead Safe Mama on 25+ popular prenatals shows the same pattern.

Best of the panel: Thorne Prenatal DHA gelcaps, non-detect for lead in the 2025 retest (the first prenatal LSM has tested non-detect). Ritual Essential Prenatal at 10 ppb (~0.03 µg/day). Nature Made Prenatal Folic + DHA stays inside USP Verified contaminant limits.

Worst of the panel: Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal at 1,900 ppb arsenic. AG1 carries a Prop 65 lead warning (>0.5 µg/day). PinkStork tested positive for all four metals.

You don't need an OB to interpret a ppb number. USP Verified seal + the chart below gets you 95% of the way there.

The panel

Real ppb numbers, prenatals, sortable.

From Lead Safe Mama's independent ICP-MS panel of 25+ prenatals (2024-2025 chart, last updated April 2025), brand-disclosed COAs, ConsumerLab, and the GAO 2024 prenatal study. Where I have a specific number, I publish it. Where I don't, it's marked. Numbers reproduced as published, facts, not endorsement.

Product	Lead (ppb)	µg/day*	Other metals	Verdict
Thorne Prenatal DHA (gelcaps, 2025 retest)	Non-detect	~0	Cd, As also non-detect on 2025 retest	Buy, first non-detect prenatal LSM has tested
Ritual Essential Prenatal	10	~0.03	Cd non-detect; As trace	Buy, cleanest mainstream multi
Nature Made Prenatal Folic + DHA (USP Verified)	≥10	est ≤0.5	Cd ≥10, As ≥10, Hg <10	Inside USP & Prop 65 limits, pragmatic drugstore buy
Thorne Basic Prenatal (capsules)	85	0.23	Cd 41 ppb (0.11 µg/day); As 38 ppb (0.10 µg/day)	Below FDA IRL & Prop 65, fine to take
Mary Ruth's Prenatal & Postnatal Liquid	Positive (low)	,	Cd, As also low-positive	Lower than peers; still detectable
SmartyPants Organic Prenatal Multi + Omegas	Positive, "higher than M&M's"	,	Cd, As positive	Gummy form drives the dose, skip
Needed Prenatal Multi (capsules)	Positive	,	Cd, As positive	Practitioner-marketed, still positive
Designs for Health Prenatal Pro	Positive	,	Cd, As positive	Practitioner channel, not exempt
Pure Encapsulations Prenatal Nutrients	Positive (LSM 2025)	,	Pb, Cd, As detected	Practitioner-grade; failed independent test
WeNatal For Her	Positive	,	Cd, As positive	,
OLLY Essential Prenatal Folic + DHA	Positive (LSM 2025)	,	,	Mass-market gummy; pattern continues
New Chapter One Daily Prenatal 35+ (LSM Apr 2025)	Positive	,	Pb, Cd, As detected	"Whole food" framing; skip
Dr. Green Mom Prenatal & Postnatal (LSM Mar 2025)	Positive	,	Pb, Cd, As detected	Practitioner-branded, still positive
Tend Daily Prenatal Bar (lemon berry)	Positive	,	Cd, As positive	Bar form = larger ingestion mass = larger dose
Seeking Health Optimal Prenatal	Not in our records	,	,	Citrate-form; no public ICP-MS panel I've found
Rainbow Light Prenatal One	Not in our records	,	,	Mass-market
One A Day Women's Prenatal Advanced (softgels, LSM Sep 2025)	Positive	,	Pb, Cd, Hg, As all detected	Mass-market drugstore, pattern continues
PinkStork Prenatal (LSM Apr 2025)	Positive	,	Pb, Cd, Hg, As, all four detected	Skip, clean four-metal sweep
Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal	9.4	~0.03 (lead)	Cd 4.7 ppb; As 1,900 ppb (≈5,700 ppb at 3 pills/day)	Skip, arsenic
AG1 (Athletic Greens)	Not published in ppb; carries Prop 65 lead warning	>0.5 (Prop 65 trigger)	ConsumerLab 2022: 18× lead vs Ora Organics	Skip if pregnant or feeding kids

*µg/day estimate = ppb × pill mass(mg) × pills/day ÷ 1,000,000. Where the lab published it (Thorne, Ritual), I use their number. Sources: Lead Safe Mama 25-prenatal chart (updated Apr 2025), Thorne Basic lab, Thorne DHA non-detect, Ritual lab report, Garden of Life lab, PinkStork lab, New Chapter lab, Dr. Green Mom lab, One A Day lab, GAO 2024, ConsumerLab, USP Verified list.

The California disclosure label is the right idea, wrong unit.

In 2025 California began requiring prenatal manufacturers to disclose lead content in ppb on the label. Direction is right, unit is wrong. Pill weights vary by an order of magnitude, a 1.5g calcium-heavy multi at 50 ppb delivers more lead per day than a 300mg multi at 100 ppb. The right unit is µg of lead per recommended daily dose, which maps directly to the FDA Interim Reference Level (7.7 µg/day for women of childbearing age) and the more conservative California Prop 65 MADL (0.5 µg/day). Until labels show µg/day, calculate it yourself: µg/day = ppb × pill mass (mg) × pills per day ÷ 1,000,000.

Dose math

What 85 ppb actually means in micrograms.

Thorne Basic Prenatal weighed in at 85 ppb of lead in independent testing. That's the headline-scary number. The same lab calculated it as 0.23 µg of lead per recommended daily dose, pill mass and dose schedule are what convert ppb to micrograms.

The reference values:

FDA Interim Reference Level for women of childbearing age: 7.7 µg/day
California Prop 65 MADL (conservative pregnancy threshold): 0.5 µg/day
Thorne Basic Prenatal: 0.23 µg/day (3% of FDA IRL, below Prop 65)
Ritual Essential Prenatal: ~0.03 µg/day (0.4% of FDA IRL)
Thorne Prenatal DHA (2025 retest): ~0 µg/day (non-detect)
AG1 (Prop 65-warned greens powder): >0.5 µg/day (over Prop 65 threshold)

For a name-brand prenatal, the daily lead dose is typically 1-5% of the FDA IRL. The cleanest brands cut that to fractions of a percent. AG1 and a few "raw / whole-food" products cross Prop 65 even when their per-pill ppb looks fine, pill mass and dose schedule do the rest of the work.

Adult multivitamins

Outside pregnancy, the same patterns.

Adult multis don't get the same independent panel coverage prenatals do, but the patterns repeat: USP Verified mainstream brands tend cleaner; "whole food / raw / mineral blend" formulations tend dirtier; greens powders carry Prop 65 warnings often enough that you should assume they apply unless the brand publishes a real µg/day number.

Nature Made Multi for Her / Multi for Him, USP Verified. Stays inside USP contaminant limits. Pragmatic.
Kirkland Signature Daily Multi, USP Verified. Same logic. Cheap.
Centrum Adult / Silver, Mass-market; ConsumerLab has historical findings of contaminant detection. Stays well under IRL.
Garden of Life Vitamin Code (adult), Same "raw" formulation family that lit up at 1,900 ppb arsenic in the prenatal version. Skip.
AG1 / Athletic Greens, Prop 65 lead warning. >0.5 µg/day. ConsumerLab 2022 measured 18× more lead than Ora Organics for the same daily serving.
Ritual Essential 18+, Same lab discipline as the prenatal. Cleanest of the modern subscription brands by published numbers.

For a daily adult multi, the µg/day budget you care about is the FDA IRL of 12.5 µg/day for adults (vs. 7.7 for women of childbearing age, 2.2 for kids). A typical USP-Verified adult multi delivers a fraction of a percent of that. The supplement is rarely your highest-dose lead source. Tap water, old painted ceramics, and certain spices usually are.

The three easy wins

What to actually do tonight.

For prenatal: Thorne Prenatal DHA, Ritual Essential, or Nature Made USP Verified.

Thorne Prenatal DHA tested non-detect for all four metals on the 2025 retest. Ritual Essential Prenatal at 10 ppb / ~0.03 µg/day with cadmium non-detect, they publish their lab work. Nature Made Prenatal Folic + DHA carries the actual USP Verified seal at drugstore prices and stays inside USP and Prop 65 limits.

Thorne Basic Prenatal at 0.23 µg/day is also fine, well under the FDA IRL. Take whichever your prescription / preference / cost-tolerance lands on.

Skip "raw / whole-food / mineral blend" prenatals.

The lab pattern is consistent: products marketed as "whole food," "raw," "mineral blend," or "natural calcium" deliver more lead and arsenic than synthesized prenatals. Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal lit up at 1,900 ppb arsenic, the highest finding in the LSM panel. New Chapter, PinkStork, Dr. Green Mom all detected lead and the rest in 2025 retests. The "raw" framing is a marketing story about the dirt staying in. The dirt is what you're trying to avoid.

Same logic on AG1 and AG1-adjacent greens powders, Prop 65 lead warnings exist for a reason. Skip during pregnancy and while feeding kids.

Verify it yourself: USP Verified seal + the chart above.

You don't need a prescription or a clinician to interpret a ppb number. The two things that actually move the needle: (1) a USP Verified seal on the bottle (independently audited contaminant limits), and (2) the brand published a real lab report or shows up clean on Lead Safe Mama / ConsumerLab. Both checks take about 30 seconds. If the brand can't produce either, that's the answer.

For dose-relevant nutrients (folate form, iron tolerance, choline, DHA, calcium), pick what your body and your budget can sustain daily. The single biggest factor in prenatal nutrition is actually taking it every day, not which calcium form is on the label. Heavy-metals avoidance is one variable. It's not the most important.

Reality check: don't burn the budget on the wrong line item.

The FDA IRL of 7.7 µg/day for women of childbearing age is a budget, not a guillotine. Even a poorly-screened prenatal contributes a fraction of a microgram. Drinking unfiltered urban tap water for a day contributes ~6 µg. A typical American diet contributes another 3-5 µg from background food lead. Old painted ceramic mugs leach in the tens of micrograms per use when the glaze is worn. Your dietary lead is the food, the water, and the dishes, not the vitamin.

What to do tonight: pick a clean prenatal off the chart above, take it with food, drink filtered water, swab any old painted ceramics with Fluoro-Spec. That's the move.

Why this matters less than the headline

The vitamin is a small fraction of total exposure.

Even at the higher end of the prenatals tested, daily lead from the pill is well under 1 µg. The actual high-volume sources during pregnancy are: tap water (especially downstream of a 1900s lead service line), root vegetables grown in old urban soil, certain imported spices, and dust in pre-1978 housing. Filter the kitchen tap, swab any suspect ceramics, then optimize the prenatal.

Long version with the per-µg breakdown: Prenatal Vitamins Containing Lead?!. ppb-vs-dose math: /compare.

Next easy win