The useful question isn’t whether a kit is accurate — it’s whether it measures the thing you’re worried about, in the place that thing shows up. Free path first, then the paid kit, then what a result should and shouldn’t tell you.
Not sure where to start?
Your address decides which test comes first
Radon, water contaminants, and lead paint cluster by geography, water source, and build year.
FDA itself recommends instant swabs as a practical screen for pottery a consumer can't otherwise verify, so there's real, agency-acknowledged utility here — but it is not FDA's own test. FDA's leachable-lead action levels are set by a 24-hour acid-extraction lab method (ASTM C738), not a surface swab, and CPSC's own evaluations of the same rhodizonate chemistry found concrete failure modes: false negatives when lead sits under an intact glaze/topcoat, and false positives on red-toned surfaces from color interference — which happens to be the exact decorative color range FDA flags as highest-risk. A pass isn't lab clearance and a fail isn't a quantified hazard, which is a tier-2 profile (useful with real, documented conditions and limits), not tier-1 (validated equivalent to the standard) or tier-3 (do not recommend).
What the number means: FDA CPG 545.450 sets leachable-lead action levels of 3.0 µg/mL (flatware, avg. of 6 units), 2.0 µg/mL (small hollowware), 1.0 µg/mL (large hollowware), and 0.5 µg/mL (cups, mugs, pitchers — any one of 6 units), measured by a 24-hour acid-extraction lab test (ASTM C738), not a swab. — U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Detects: lead (qualitative, presence/absence above ~0.5% by weight / 5,000 ppm)
EPA-recognized under the RRP Rule (40 CFR 745), but only on the negative-response criterion (≤5% false negative at 95% confidence) — no kit has met the separate false-positive criterion, so a positive result carries a less formally-bounded reliability figure than a negative one. Recognition also only covers painted wood, drywall, plaster, and ferrous metal (not stucco or non-ferrous metal), and each swab covers just 1-2 sq in, so a single test can miss lead sitting in an underlying paint layer the swab didn't reach. Real enough conditions to place this at 'defensible with conditions' rather than clean tier-1, even though it remains a legitimate, actively-recognized screening tool for its specific covered use case.
Free path first
HUD-funded local lead hazard control grantee programs (via county/state health departments) provide free lead testing and hazard reduction for eligible lower-income households in pre-1978 housing — availability and eligibility vary by location, so check locally before buying a kit.
What the number means: EPA's negative-response criterion for recognized kits: reliably rules out lead at or above 1.0 mg/cm² (0.5% by weight) on painted wood, drywall, plaster, or ferrous metal — no recognized kit meets the separate false-positive criterion. — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Tier 1Validated and actionable — a recognized method with a published threshold to act on.
Tier 2Defensible with conditions — useful if you know exactly what it does and doesn't detect.
Tier 3Not recommended — never publishes as a recommendation on this site.
The free alternative is always named before any paid option — naming the free path is what makes a paid recommendation credible.
Health screening
Coming soon
Everything above tests a house. The other half of the picture is whether the people in it are current on the screenings their doctor would actually recommend — which is a different question, answered by different tools, and one we’d rather build properly than quickly. It’s coming, because health is most of what safety means.
