Mamavation Investigation Finds Disturbing Toxins in Kids's Multivitamins

Initially printed on Mamavation: July 29, 2025

What are the most secure youngsters’s multivitamins out there with the bottom quantity of poisonous contaminants like pesticides, heavy metals, PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances,” and phthalates?

We requested our viewers what youngsters’s multivitamins they have been giving their children and we despatched the highest 9 merchandise off to totally different EPA-certified laboratories to verify. The outcomes might help mother and father in our group make educated choices on what manufacturers to buy for his or her youngsters.

You’ve trusted Mamavation to convey you shopper research like most secure cooking oils examined for phthalates, most secure water filters to filter PFAS, and most secure probiotics for teenagers examined for indications of PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances,” now be a part of us for a shopper research testing youngsters’s multivitamins for pesticides, PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances,” phthalates, and heavy metals.

Disclosure: This shopper research is launched in partnership with Environmental Well being Information. Scientific opinions have been carried out by (1) Terrence Collins, Teresa Heinz Professor of Inexperienced Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Inexperienced Sciences at Carnegie Mellon College and (2) Linda S. Birnbaum, Scientist Emeritus and Former Director of the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences and Nationwide Toxicology Program and Scholar in Residence at Duke College, Adjunct Professor on the College of North Carolina, and Yale College.

Donations have been offered by Environmental Well being Information and Mamavation group members. Be aware that Mamavation has solely “spot-checked” the business and thus we can not make predictions about manufacturers and merchandise that we’ve got not examined. Merchandise and manufacturing aides can change with out discover so purchaser beware.

This put up accommodates affiliate hyperlinks, with most to Amazon, which implies Mamavation will obtain a portion of these gross sales and we’ll use that to pay ourselves again for the testing. You can too give a tax-deductible donation to our shopper research right here via Environmental Well being Sciences. Thanks! Copyright © 2025 Mamavation — All Rights Reserved.

Mamavation’s EPA-Licensed Laboratory Finds Heavy Metals, PFAS, Pesticides, and Phthalates in Widespread Kids’s Multivitamins

Mamavation despatched 9 well-liked youngsters’s multivitamins to 2 EPA-certified laboratories testing for PFAS analytes, together with PFOA/PFOS, phthalates, heavy metals, glyphosate, and 500+ further pesticides. The contamination outcomes have been stunning contemplating how costly most of those merchandise have been. This is the result of contaminants that have been discovered in accordance with our labs:

Linda S. Birnbaum, Scientist Emeritus and Former Director of the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences and Nationwide Toxicology Program and Scholar in Residence at Duke College, Adjunct Professor on the College of North Carolina, and Yale College had this to say after her scientific assessment:

“Kids’s multivitamins are doing a greater job avoiding heavy metals like lead and cadmium and pesticides, however nonetheless have points with phthalates and PFAS. These particular contaminants are very problematic to youngsters’s well being, so I’d advocate working to decrease and get rid of these chemical substances instantly.”

Contaminants Included in Mamavation’s EPA Licensed Laboratory Testing

Mamavation despatched 9 youngsters’s multivitamins to 2 totally different EPA-certified laboratories in search of particular problematic contaminants that may not be listed on an ingredient panel. These elements are by no means discovered on an ingredient label as a result of they aren’t thought-about “deliberately added” and would as an alternative be thought-about extra of a contaminant from manufacturing, transportation, storage, and/or farming practices.

Nevertheless, simply because these contaminants are usually not “deliberately added” doesn’t suggest they will not affect your well being over time and utilization. Our labs examined for the next contaminants and located a few of them current in youngsters’s multivitamins we examined to various levels:

Terrence Collins, Teresa Heinz Professor of Inexperienced Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Inexperienced Sciences at Carnegie Mellon College had this to say after his scientific assessment: “Kids’s multivitamins intention to help the wholesome growth and welfare of America’s biggest treasures — its wonderful and delightful youngsters who’re the Nation’s future.

Given the belief that folks categorical that their youngsters’s well being and vitality will probably be boosted in the event that they purchase them multivitamin dietary supplements, one would suppose that an assurance that well-recognized poisonous chemical substances are absent needs to be a bedrock of this whole business.

Mamavation’s research reveals that this bedrock is shaky at finest and challenges the advertising and marketing corporations to do a lot better for the individuals who purchase and use their merchandise. Corporations on this space have some critical rethinking, resourcing, chemical purification, and chemical monitoring work to do to stabilize the bedrock that’s important for shopper belief.”

PFAS “Eternally Chemical” Analytes Examined, Together with PFOA and PFOS

PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances” are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances used as stain-resistant, water resistant, and oil-resistant chemical substances in commerce. They’ve been used for many years in shopper merchandise, manufacturing, and constructing supplies. Listed below are a few of the well being results related to totally different PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances:”

It is also very clear based mostly on biomonitoring proof from the Heart for Illness Management (CDC) that PFAS are in nearly all People. Due to this fact, these exposures can hurt most People. For this investigation, we elected to check for forty particular PFAS analytes listed beneath utilizing EPA methodology 1633:

Glyphosate — Testing Particulars

Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine] is the energetic ingredient in glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) and is the hottest herbicide on the planet. Environmental publicity to this broad-based herbicide has elevated dramatically because the introduction in 1996 of “Spherical-up Prepared” genetically modified (GMO) crops for soybean, maize, and cotton varieties.

“Spherical-up Prepared” genetically modified crops made it attainable to make the most of glyphosate as a broadcast herbicide whereas not killing the crops they have been sprayed on. Glyphosate can be extensively used for deforestation efforts, equivalent to killing brush in hearth zones, and can be relied on closely by landscapers to kill weeds on inexperienced belts and golf programs. Finally, glyphosate is used for eliminating weeds and shrubs, equivalent to annual and perennial grasses, broadleaf weeds, and woody species.

Glyphosate was initially patented as a chelator and an antibiotic, which implies it has the power to cease nutrient absorption and decimate delicate intestine flora. These two easy details clarify why glyphosate is so damaging to the general well being of your physique and has been linked to spreading antibiotic-resistant micro organism. Glyphosate has additionally been deemed a “possible carcinogen” by the World Well being Group and added to the Prop. 65 Record of carcinogens and reproductive toxins in California.

Mamavation despatched 9 youngsters’s multivitamins to our EPA Licensed lab to check for glyphosate, glufosinate, and AMPA (metabolites or breakdown merchandise) utilizing liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) at 10 elements per billion (ppb) detection restrict. That is the usual take a look at going as little as attainable in a industrial lab. (College labs or experimental labs utilizing non-standardized testing might be able to go decrease.)

500+ Extra Pesticide Laboratory Exams for Kids’s Multivitamins — Testing Particulars

9 youngsters’s multivitamins have been despatched to our EPA-certified lab and analyzed utilizing two totally different strategies, which totaled testing for 587 pesticides all the way down to the bottom standardized degree, which was largely 10 ppb. Nevertheless, there are a couple of chemical substances the place the detection restrict was between 18 and 25 ppb. Our laboratory didn’t discover any traces of pesticides at any of those detection ranges. The primary methodology regarded on the following pesticides:

The second group was analyzed utilizing the LC-MS/MS approach for 360 pesticides and included the next:

Phthalates — Testing Particulars

Phthalates are linked to many well being results in a number of research on each animals and people. That is very problematic as a result of phthalates are linked with hormone disruption of the endocrine system, which regulates the physique’s hormones, even in hint quantities in low concentrations. Epidemiological research have revealed that publicity to phthalates adversely impacts the extent of hormones inside the physique, which may affect a number of essential well being features. Listed below are some well being results phthalate publicity is linked to.

Mamavation’s EPA-certified lab examined for the next phthalates. This isn’t a whole record of all of the phthalates which are allowed to be current as an oblique meals additive in accordance with the FDA, nonetheless, this record goes above and past what’s already restricted by the European Union or the State of California.

Heavy Metals: Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic — Testing Particulars

Our EPA-certified laboratory examined every youngsters’s multivitamins for the next metals:

Mamavation then adjusted the end result to mirror California Prop. 65 based mostly on serving dimension into ug/day outcomes. Relating to defending customers, California has way more stringent well being protecting ranges, however as an alternative of banning merchandise, they require producers to make use of label warnings as an alternative.

California’s Prop. 65 established “protected harbor ranges” for many of the heavy metals we examined: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Prop. 65 requires companies to supply warnings to customers dwelling in California about important exposures to chemical substances that trigger most cancers, delivery defects, or different reproductive hurt.

These chemical substances could be within the merchandise they buy, of their properties or workplaces, or launched into the atmosphere. By requiring this info to be offered, it permits customers in California to make knowledgeable choices about their publicity to those chemical substances.

Listed below are the No Vital Threat Ranges (NSRL) and the Most Allowable Dose Ranges (MADL) established by the State of California for the heavy metals we examined:

Mamavation’s Uncooked Knowledge from Our EPA-Licensed Laboratory Ranked

Mamavation despatched two units of 9 youngsters’s multivitamins to totally different EPA-certified laboratories in search of traces of contaminants:

All merchandise have been despatched to the laboratory in unique packaging and bought between June and December 2024. Merchandise have been chosen by Mamavation group members representing what they’re already shopping for and utilizing of their properties to feed their households. All merchandise have been bought by Mamavation instantly.

We couldn’t buy and take a look at all of the really helpful manufacturers as a result of we had a restricted funds for this testing. After analyzing the outcomes of every product, we determined to categorize merchandise into three classes.

If you want to donate to our efforts, you are able to do so by giving a tax-deductible donation right here via Environmental Well being Sciences. You can too help our efforts by purchasing our affiliate hyperlinks. Please observe that hyperlinks beneath are affiliate in nature and any purchases can pay us again for the testing and permit us to do extra testing sooner or later.

Mamavation’s Investigation of Kids’s Multivitamins

Not Our Favourite Kids’s Multivitamins

These youngsters’s multivitamins have been discovered to have quantifiable quantities of PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances” OR that they had excessive quantities of phthalates current. If we discovered pesticides, we’d have positioned these merchandise right here.

Higher Multivitamins

These youngsters’s multivitamins both had PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances” or pesticides recognized by the lab, however they have been in such low quantities they weren’t quantifiable. Most of those manufacturers additionally had phthalates current within the samples we examined.

MRL means “Methodology Reporting Restrict” and it means the bottom focus examined that may be reported reliably.

Finest Multivitamins

These youngsters’s multivitamins have been free from PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances,” phthalates, pesticides, and ranges of heavy metals which are low sufficient that they don’t require a Prop. 65 Warning in California.

In regards to the Writer

Leah Segedie is the President and Founding father of Mamavation.com. Mamavation produces award-winning content material and unbiased shopper research inspecting the intersection of endocrine-disrupting chemical substances (EDCs) and on a regular basis merchandise introduced into American households. She’s been referred to by many as “the actual FDA.”

Since 2008, Mamavation has been serving to on a regular basis mothers navigate the grocery retailer by commissioning shopper research on meals, drinks, private care merchandise and different such merchandise and thus democratizing science and testing for everybody.