mother doing child's hair

We tested for 15 metals in your child's hair, including aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, iron, manganese, nickel, selenium, thallium, and zinc. Metals in your child's hair can come from drinking water, household dust, soil, or other sources.

What are the potential health effects from metals exposure?

Health effects from lead exposure are irreversible, lifelong, and cumulative as exposure continues. These may include issues with hearing, speech, the brain and central nervous system, growth, and development. Learning and behavior issues include lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention, and underperformance in school. In adults, lead exposure can cause kidney problems and high blood pressure.

Other metals can alter the color and taste of water. Health effects of other metals can include gastrointestinal, respiratory, and cardiovascular issues. Metals such as arsenic and cadmium can be carcinogenic with long term exposure. Metals can also cause damage to the stomach, liver, kidney, intestines, and brain.

Some metals are normal and can even be beneficial, but at high concentrations can impact health. This is known as hormesis, a biological response mechanism where low-dose amounts of environmental agents have a beneficial effect and high-dose amounts can be toxic. Click here for more info.

For more information on how to reduce exposure to metals in water, visit our Metals in Water page. For more information on how to reduce exposure to metals in dust, visit our Metals in Dust page.