There is no safe level of lead in a child's blood.
So why are children the primary way we detect it?
Current research indicates any level of lead causes some degree of brain damage. Public-health infrastructure in the US responds to blood levels above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, which is another way of saying 35 ppb. Below that, you are on your own.
For decades the options for detecting lead at home were limited to XRF guns or send-away lab tests. Chemical kits existed, but the dominant product was patent-protected, and most competition was squeezed out.
In 2019 I built an alternative. Same core reagent, sodium rhodizonate, but activated with vinegar, which most people already have. By separating the activating liquid from the reagent, the cost dropped tenfold, from five dollars a test to about fifty cents a test. Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have used those swabs to find lead in their homes.
Sodium rhodizonate is a robust reagent but a weak one. The swabs detect lead in water around 14 parts per million. They find lead in paint well, in soil down to about 200 ppm through a digestive process, but they struggle with dust.
Methylammonium bromide (MABr) is a completely different paradigm.
Instead of forming a colored reaction product visible only as a fraction of reflected visible light, MABr reacts with lead to form a fluorescent mineral, methylammonium lead bromide, that glows green under UV. A handheld UV flashlight illuminates the sample with invisible ultraviolet; the green emission stands out against the background so brightly that each individual particle of lead dust can be seen.
Which brings me back to the question.
Why are children still being used as lead tests when this exists?
Because it is new. I have only been able to legally sell it for five weeks.
This is the beginning of the end of relying on children as environmental sensors. There is no reason to when the environment can be tested directly.
Your child tests negative? Great. See you next year.
There is a lot to consider at a pediatrician's office. If you run one and want to equip it with Fluoro-Spec, let me know. I will send 75 free.
That's what the rest of this book is going to be about.
You can catch it with a flashlight and spray bottle in your hands.
Test your stuff. Move on.
Glow-based primary lead detection, direct from the manufacturer.
Get the Full Kit · $75 →