Clean Water Lead Testing is a non-profit, nationally certified testing service for lead, copper, and arsenic in drinking water offered by the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina and Clean Water for North Carolina, a grassroots environmental justice organization. Your purchase of low-cost test kits helps to support national drinking water research, assistance to communities and safe drinking water advocacy. You'll get detailed analytical results from our laboratory, and recommendations for protecting your family's health.

All of our test kits for LEAD in water are TWO SAMPLE kits, and include laboratory analysis for both a "first draw" and a "purged" sample. When water sits in leaded or lead-soldered pipes for several hours, the lead concentration can slowly build up. To see if running the water briefly ("purging") will reduce lead to safe levels, a two sample test is needed.

NEW! We now offer a test kit for LEAD in ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREES . Click HERE!

NOTE: Orders accepted from U. S. and Canada. Due to a licensing policy, we can not sell Paint, Soil or Dust Test Kits for lead to residents of the State of New York.

Order On-line! You can now order test kits online with your credit card. Click HERE! Sorry, we cannot take phone orders. You can also print out an order form and mail it with your check or money order. Click HERE!

Here's How it Works: When you order and pay for a kit, the instructions and sample containers are mailed by conventional first class mail and you will receive them in less than 2 weeks from our laboratory. Simply follow the instructions, use the padded mailer and address label to return the kit to EQI for certified testing. Detailed lab results and recommendations are mailed to you within 2 weeks of your sample's arrival at our lab, all included in the cost of your kit .

We invite you to browse around to learn more about who we are, where lead can be found in your environment and what you can do about it. We offer test kits that you can use to collect samples from your household and your water for certified analysis of lead and copper (two samples) and arsenic content. We also offer resources with more information about lead poisoning, and solutions you can use right now to help prevent the adverse health effects of lead from threatening your family.

U. S. Centers for Disease Control Offers a New Archive of Lead Recalls! http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/Recalls/default.htm

Consumer Product Safety Commission Policy on Lead in Children's Jewelry

"While deteriorating lead paint in homes is the leading cause of lead poisoning in children, lead exposures from other sources add to the overall risk. To prevent young children from exceeding the 10 ug/dl blood lead level, CPSC seeks to limit exposure to lead from all consumer products, including children’s metal jewelry."

We sometimes get asked about the methods used to analyze your samples.

Water samples are first acidified to put metals in solution that may have adhered to the sides of the bottle or to particulates in the water, and allowed to sit for 16 hours. Samples are then analyzed according to the following analytical methods:

Lead determination is by EPA Method 200.9, Determination of Trace Elements by Stabilized Temperature Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption. Rev 2.2, 1994.

Copper determination is by Standard Method 3111B, Flame Atomic Absorption Method, Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. From “Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater", 19 Ed, 1995.

Arsenic determinationis is by Standard Method 3114B, Manual Hydride Generation / Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Method. From “Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater", 19 Ed, 1995.