Hello everybody, my name is Eric - I've wanted to do this for a while now but the complexities of running a business have gotten in the way. I admit I'm more of a scientist than a business person. The purpose of DetectLead.com is to end lead poisoning.
For the past 5 years my company Spirochaete Research Labs, LLC has enabled me to delve deep into consumer product research. Amongst other things one of my interested is reagent testing, what is a reagent you may ask?
its just a chemical that detects other chemicals by reacting with them to form a colored product. Reagents have been used to ID different compounds for hundreds of years, perhaps in a future post i can go over some of the past tests for lead.
Anyway in 2019 I started researching lead detection, i found that the technologies for detecting lead were insufficient to serve the public appropriately. The prevailing chemical test for detecting lead was being sold for 5$ per swab. LeadCheck is a product that is over engineered and basically monopolized the consumer lead test market. Another product i found featured sodium rhodizonate (the active chemical in LeadCheck) but was designed so poorly I knew there was an opportunity.
I Determined Sodium Rhodizonate was sensitive to water, once wetted it quickly degraded- so to overcome this I dispersed the chemical in a carrier solution and dipped the cotton swabs into it. Just like that i had created a lead testing solution that i could afford to sell for 10x less than the competition, i was ecstatic. I marketed it on Amazon.com and for years have sold it under the same listing. It was not until i was introduced to academics working in Geochemistry, and unrelated fields both here and abroad that i really sunk my teeth into Lead Detection. I admit I became obsessed, the topic is very alluring to me. The nuances of the lead problem make my stomach turn, the ability to help people is so close! The science is well within my grasp! And with my previous business success I can actually afford to invest in the equipment necessary to advance testing even more than before. XRF testing, EPA classes, endless research papers to sift through and the allure of new, virtually undeveloped science has kept me locked for the past year.
However when in the lab i act as feral as they come, I typically don't take any notes, nor do i feel the need to publish my findings, since the products I create are what speaks for my work. the methods i derive enable me to create more units faster and sell them for a lower cost. This has to stop because
Herein lies the limiting factor to my impacts.. I know i can overcome my aversion to publishing stuff online, and this is the first step. Ive been driven to this point by my desire to impact the world in a positive way, let me tell you it hasn't been easy. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to create products that help people and I understand the magnitude of this task, so thank you for reading. I hope this has given some background into who you may be buying a test kit from, rest assured I will keep working on this until there's no lead left to be detected.
Sincerely,
Eric Ritter
Founder
Scitus Laboratory Products