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Drip tests
3,600+
Spray tests
500+
Verified reviews
180+
Avg rating
4.5 ★

Lab-grade chemistry. 30-second result.

Fluoro-Spec fluorescence spectroscopy uses an advanced reagent to react exclusively with lead ions and emit a visible glow.

38/38 Lead particles detected in field tests. Zero missed.
0/9 False positives in non-lead control samples.
<30s Time from spray to visible glow if lead is present.
60ml Reagent per Full Kit. Enough to test your whole home + another.
EPA Clearance
The only glow-based kit cleared for sale.

FluoroSpec is approved for commercial sale by EPA under TSCA Sec 5 LVE L-25-0206 — issued after a multi-year engagement with the EPA. No other UV-glow lead kit on the market holds this approval. Competing products using sodium rhodizonate or xylenol orange are not listed on the TSCA Inventory.

Peer-reviewed science
Published in Analytica Chimica Acta.

The MABr fluorescence method behind FluoroSpec was published by Van Geen et al. (2024) and co-authored by Eric Ritter. It detects individual lead-based paint particles ≥40 µm visible to the naked eye -- no lab instrument required. White paper FS-WP-001 documents the field results.

Complete kit
Everything in one box. No extras to buy.

Every Full Kit ships with a 30ml drip bottle, a 30ml spray bottle, a calibrated 365nm UV flashlight, and a spray extending ring for the spray bottle that reduces reagent use per test so you get hundreds more tests out of it. One flat price, unlimited tests, delivered to your door.

How FluoroSpec was developed →

Where do you actually want to start?

Pick the situation that matches yours. Each one's a complete walkthrough — what to know, what to test, what to do next.

Everything about

A baby on the way (or just here)

Prenatal vitamins · formula · baby food · your own diet during pregnancy. The 0–6 brain window and what feeds it.

Start the journey → Everything about

Lead in your house

Paint, dust, windows, water, soil, toys. The walk-through every renter and homeowner should do once. Pre-1978 priority.

Walk the house → Everything about

Dishes, cookware, decor

Imported. Vintage. Hand-painted. Hand-me-down. Which categories fail. The 30-second drop test for any piece.

Audit the kitchen → Everything about

Adults 55+ and grandkids

Cardiovascular risk · cognitive decline · bone resorption. Your lifetime lead burden, the kid in your house, the audit you owe both of them.

Read the senior track → Everything about

Your first test, start to finish

Just bought a kit? The first ten surfaces in priority order, what counts as a positive, what to do when something glows.

Walk the first test → Everything about

µg/day, the only number that matters

Pick the foods your kid eats. Get total micrograms of lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury per day. 1,343 foods, 4 metals, free.

Open the calculator →

Or work through the linear journey →

1 · Window 2 · Frame 3A · Prenatal 3B · Formula 3C · Meta 4 · Action

Three steps to an honest answer.

  1. Step 01

    Spray or drip onto the surface.

    Use the drip bottle for contained items — dishware, jewelry, plumbing solder, painted trim. Use the spray bottle when scanning for lead dust on floors, windowsills, or large surfaces. The surface must be dry. Water dilutes the reagent and washes the signal away.

    German stein before testing
  2. Step 02

    Wait 30 seconds.

    The reagent binds to lead ions on contact and forms fluorescent perovskite microcrystals. No reaction happens unless lead is present. Iron, rust, soap, and pigment cannot trigger a false positive — unlike color-change swabs, the chemistry is specific to lead.

    FluoroSpec dripping onto a stein
  3. Step 03

    Shine the UV light and read the glow.

    Green glow = lead present. No glow = clean. The included 365 nm flashlight excites the crystals. You read the result with your own eyes in real time — no app, no shipping to a lab, no waiting.

    Stein glowing green showing lead present

The two-bottle system

Every Full Kit ships with both bottles, a 365 nm UV flashlight, and a printed reference card. The chemistry is the same. The dispensers are tuned for what you are testing.

Spray bottle

For dust and unknown surfaces.

Use it to find lead chips in dust, and for when you don't know exactly where to test. One spray, wait 30 seconds, shine the UV. Glow means lead.

The Spray Kit →
Drip bottle

For just about everything else.

Dishware, jewelry, toys, plumbing solder, and any specific item you can hold. One drop, 30 seconds, UV light. Glow means lead.

The Drip Kit →

What you can test.

One spray or one drop, then 30 seconds under UV. These are the five vectors where lead most often shows up in a household.

Paint chip under UV
Paint

The most common source in homes built before 1978.

Pre-1978 interior paint often contains lead carbonate or lead oxide as a pigment. It leaches as paint ages, chips, or gets disturbed during renovation. The drip bottle is designed for this -- one drop on the surface, 30 seconds under UV. If it glows green, lead is present. You do not need to break the surface or expose bare wood.

Lead dust under UV
Dust

The invisible vector. Lead dust is the #1 way children get exposed.

Lead does not need to be eaten. Hand-to-mouth contact with lead-contaminated dust on windowsills, floors, and surfaces is how most children with elevated blood lead get there. The HUD floor standard is 10 µg/ft². The spray bottle was built for dust -- mist a windowsill or floor area, wait 30 seconds, shine the UV. Glow means dust at action-level concentrations.

Lead solder joint under UV
Plumbing

Solder joints in homes built before 1986 commonly contain lead.

The Safe Drinking Water Act did not ban lead solder until 1986. If your home is older, the solder bead at copper pipe joints is a direct lead source. Use the drip bottle directly on the visible solder joint under the sink or at the water heater. A green glow confirms lead is present in the fitting.

Lead-glazed dish under UV
Dishes

Pre-1980s ceramics, imported pottery, and decorated rims are the highest-risk items in most kitchens.

Lead was widely used in ceramic glazes for color and durability until the late 1970s. Hand-painted imports and vintage dishware still leach lead into food and drink. Use the drip bottle -- one drop on the rim or interior glaze. The test works on glazed ceramics, enamel, and decorative coatings without scratching the surface.

Jewelry glowing under UV
Jewelry

Costume jewelry and metal beads are among the least-tested and highest-concentration lead items in a home.

Lead is used in cheap alloys and metal beads to add weight and reduce cost. Children's jewelry, imported fashion pieces, and vintage metal accessories frequently test positive. Use the drip bottle on the metal surface. One drop is enough. Because the item is small and contained, you will get a clear result quickly.

Everyday items glowing under UV
Everyday Items

Imported toys, vinyl products, and painted household goods are among the most overlooked lead sources in a home.

Lead is used in plastic stabilizers, dyes, and surface coatings on imported goods. Toys, vinyl lunchboxes, cheap dishware, and painted household items frequently test positive. Apply one drop to the surface or a small scratched area. You will get a clear result in under 30 seconds.

33 million US homes still contain lead paint.

And 18 million of those have an active lead hazard.

The CDC has lowered the safe blood-lead threshold five times since 1970, and it keeps moving down. The dust on a windowsill is invisible. Standard hardware-store swabs were built to test paint chips, not the dust at the threshold of harm.

33M
US homes with lead paint
0 µg/dL
No safe level of lead in blood
5x
CDC threshold revisions, all downward
18M
Of those have an active lead hazard.
The full risk assessment →

Pick your kit.

Most popular
Full Kit
Full Fluoro-Spec Test Kit

Drip + spray + 365 nm UV light + reference card. Tests paint, dust, dishware, toys, and plumbing.

$75
Buy Now →
Double Kit
Double Fluoro-Spec Test Kit

Two of everything. For families, gifts, or extra capacity. Save vs buying two Full Kits.

$88
Buy Now →
Drip Kit
The Drip Tip Bottle Test Kit

For dishware, jewelry, toys, plumbing, and any specific item. One drop, 30 seconds, UV light.

$50
Buy Now →
Spray Kit
The Spray Bottle Test Kit

For dust and broad surfaces. Wide coverage when you don't know exactly where to test.

$50
Buy Now →

Every kit includes the 96-page Lead Framework PDF, free.

Not sure which kit to get? Take the 2-minute quiz.

12 quick questions. Your answers map to a real µg/day exposure estimate, compared to the FDA reference dose for your household. We tell you your Lead Safety Score and the kit that fits.

Or Browse all products ↓

Real results

What customers found in their homes.

Media sent in by real FluoroSpec users. Same glow, different places. The bright green is lead reacting in real time under UV.

Glow gallery, what real lead looks like →

FluoroSpec vs the alternatives.

The three common ways to test for lead at home or through a lab. What each one actually does.

FluoroSpec Pro XRF LeadTest swabs
Result type Visible glow Numeric Color change
False positives None (0/9 in field tests) None Rust, soap, pigment
Reads dust Yes Limited No
Tests per dollar 4,100+ / $75 1 / $300+ ~10 / $30
EPA registered Yes (TSCA LVE L-25-0206) Yes No
Time to result <30 seconds Days Minutes
§ 09 · LEAD DATABASE

4,700+ items, tested with XRF, with verdicts.

Look up the dish, mug, water bottle, or thrift-store find sitting in your kitchen right now. Every entry includes the XRF reading, the verdict, and what the number actually means for food contact.

Not lead safe

Yeti Rumbler Tumbler (Black)

190,455 ppm Pb
Lead free

Owala Pink Stainless Bottle

0 ppm Pb
Not lead safe

Vintage Pyrex Glass

XRF detected Pb
1936
Not lead safe

1936 Bunnykins Bowl

vintage decoration
'78
Not lead safe

Garfield McDonald's 1978

painted decoration
holly
Not lead safe

Vintage Holly Glass Mugs

painted holiday glass
Browse all 4,700 items →

Or read the primer on what these XRF numbers actually mean for your kitchen: XRF vs leach vs FluoroSpec.

Free with any kit

Free mail-in soil XRF test with any kit.

Send Eric a soil sample. He runs it personally on a $50,000 Niton XL5 Plus and emails the results back, usually within a week. Lead, cadmium, arsenic, and 20+ other metals quantified in parts per million. A $100 value, free with any FluoroSpec kit.

Get a kit + free soil test How to take a sample

30 seconds to a real answer.

One kit covers paint, dust, dishware, toys, and plumbing. Ships in 2 days. 365-day money-back if it does not earn its place.

Get the Full Kit
Item glowing green under UV light, indicating lead detection

Common questions

Before you buy.

How accurate is it?

FluoroSpec uses the same fluorescence chemistry that detects lead at parts-per-million levels in lab settings. It is approved for commercial sale by EPA under TSCA Sec 5 LVE L-25-0206 and detects below the HUD floor-dust standard of 10 µg per square foot.

What if it glows on something safe?

False positives are rare and usually trace to a small set of materials (some uranium glass, certain mineral pigments). The reference card lists them. When in doubt, request the free soil-style XRF mail-in for a quantitative reading.

How is this different from a hardware-store swab?

Rhodizonate swabs need a paint chip with raw paint exposed. The actual exposure path is dust at the threshold of harm. FluoroSpec reads the dust directly. The swab is asking a different, narrower question.

Is the chemistry safe for kids and pets?

The reagent is non-toxic at the dilutions used and wipes off most surfaces with water. The kit ships with full handling instructions. Keep the bottle out of reach the same way you would any household cleaner.

What does the soil test cover?

Lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, chromium, and 15+ other metals quantified in parts per million on a Niton XL5 Plus XRF analyzer. You get a written report by email, usually within a week.

Money-back guarantee?

365 days. If the kit does not earn its place in your house, return it for a full refund. No restocking fees, no questions.

All 19 questions answered →

Still not convinced? Read what other customers say.

★★★★★

Sprayed the windowsill in our 1948 house. The whole trim line lit up green. Called the abatement people the next day.

Marisa K., Portland OR
★★★★★

Found three mugs in my cabinet that lit up under the drip. Goodwill rim, vintage Fiestaware, and one I bought in Mexico. Tossed all three.

Dan R., Austin TX
★★★★★

My toddler had elevated blood lead. The kit found the source in an afternoon. Painted dresser in her room, the previous owner had stripped and repainted with what turned out to be old leaded paint underneath.

Jess T., Cleveland OH
★★★★★

Sent in a soil sample from our garden bed. Got a full XRF report back with lead at 380 ppm. Built a raised bed instead.

Kira H., Brooklyn NY
★★★★★

As a home inspector this thing is in my truck every day. Faster than a swab and it actually catches dust contamination.

Marcus L., licensed inspector
★★★★★

Tested the turmeric I brought back from a trip. Glowed. Found out later that brand had been recalled in two countries.

Priya N., Seattle WA
Read all verified reviews →

Get the Full Kit.

Both bottles, the UV flashlight, the reference card, and more.

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Get the Full Kit
365-day money-back EPA TSCA Sec 5 LVE

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