A lead test kit built for the field, not the lab.
Public health programs, code enforcement officers, and housing inspectors run into the same pre-1978 lead paint problem every week. Fluoro-Spec is a spray-and-UV kit that confirms or rules out a lead hazard on the spot, during the same visit. This page is for the programs and agencies that want to put it to work.
See it work in the field
This is the walk-through we made for code enforcement officers. Spray a little reagent, shine a 365 nm UV flashlight, and lead in paint, chips, or dust lights up green. The reagent is methylammonium bromide in isopropanol. When it touches lead it forms a tiny perovskite crystal that fluoresces green under UV. It is a chemistry reaction, not a light trick, and nothing else in a typical building makes that color in that pattern.
What a field team can check
Lead shows up in housing, code enforcement, and public health work in four shapes. The kit reads all four.
Painted surfaces
Window casings, jambs, baseboards, porch railings, peeling exterior trim on pre-1978 housing. Spray the paint, shine the UV light, lead pigment lights up green.
Paint chips and debris
Chips on a porch floor, chips in a play area, sanding debris around a renovation. Drop the chip into a puddle of reagent and read it in seconds.
Settled dust
Window sills, troughs, floors, and carpet. The reagent finds the lead pigment in the dust itself, not just the surface it sits on.
Other lead-bearing items
Vintage dishes, painted toys, antique jewelry, leaded crystal, old solder. Anything suspected of carrying lead can be sprayed and read.
1 to 30 sec
Reaction time on a positive sample, depending on how thick the pigment is.
No license
A screening tool, not an XRF and not a regulatory determination.
Photo-friendly
The green glow shows on any phone camera in a dim room. Attach it to the report.
Reads lead only
The reagent reacts with lead and nothing else. No false positives.
The kit is a screening tool, the way a tape measure is not a survey but you still want one on the belt. A confirmed hazard still goes to a certified inspector for the formal work. What the kit does is tell a field team where to look, today.
Who we work with
DetectLead already builds resources for public-sector partners. Here is where the kit fits, and the work we have done so far.
Public health programs
Programs use the kit for home visits, community testing days, and to put a simple tool in a parent's hands. When a program needs to justify a kit purchase to its funder, we build a clear, sourced briefing it can forward internally. We are doing exactly that with a municipal public health department now.
Code enforcement agencies
Officers use the kit to confirm or rule out a hazard during a complaint visit, photograph the glow, and attach it to the write-up. We built a full page and field video for code enforcement officers, and we send training stock to agencies that ask.
Housing and HUD grantees
Renovation crews, lead hazard control grantees, and contractors use the kit for pre-work spot checks and to double-check their own clearance areas before a child moves back in.
Parents
Parents use the kit to check their own home, the dishes they eat off, the bottles their baby drinks from. We built a hub of free tools a parent can start with without buying anything: a baby-bottle list, a baby-food lot scanner, a dish lookup, and a ZIP-code lead-risk screener.
What we offer partners
We would rather a program try the kit and decide for itself than take our word for it. Three things, all free.
Free kits to evaluate
We send kits to your screening committee or field staff to test before any commitment. No cost, no obligation.
Our testing data
DetectLead publishes an open dataset of lead testing on everyday products. Programs and coalitions are welcome to use it.
A walk-through or presentation
We will brief your team, your coalition, or your committee on how the kit works and where it fits. In person or over a call.
Program-branded packaging, built for the program.
The packaging is built around the program, not the Fluoro-Spec brand: where to look for lead-based-paint dust, how to test, and the program's own contact and referral line go right on the bag. The example below was produced for another program, with that program's staff contact printed on it. Your program's information and priorities go in that place. Examples can be sent for use in your bid or grant documentation.
Identifying lead with a kit is always better than finding it with a kid.
Talk to us about your program
Eric Ritter. Founder, Fluoro-Spec Inc. and DetectLead. eric@detectlead.com · 631-461-1838.
Kits ship from Long Island, New York.
Kits ship from Long Island, New York.