Mamavation Investigation Finds Disturbing Toxins in Youngsters's Multivitamins

Initially revealed on Mamavation: July 29, 2025

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

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

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 part of us for a shopper examine testing kids’s multivitamins for pesticides, PFAS “ceaselessly chemical substances,” phthalates, and heavy metals.

Disclosure: This shopper examine is launched in partnership with Environmental Well being Information. Scientific critiques 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 supplied by Environmental Well being Information and Mamavation neighborhood members. Word that Mamavation has solely “spot-checked” the trade and thus we can not make predictions about manufacturers and merchandise that we now have not examined. Merchandise and manufacturing aides can change with out discover so purchaser beware.

This publish comprises affiliate hyperlinks, with most to Amazon, which suggests Mamavation will obtain a portion of these gross sales and we’ll use that to pay ourselves again for the testing. It’s also possible to give a tax-deductible donation to our shopper research right here by way of Environmental Well being Sciences. Thanks! Copyright © 2025 Mamavation — All Rights Reserved.

Mamavation’s EPA-Licensed Laboratory Finds Heavy Metals, PFAS, Pesticides, and Phthalates in Well-liked Youngsters’s Multivitamins

Mamavation despatched 9 well-liked kids’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. Here is the result of contaminants that have been discovered in response to 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 evaluation:

«Youngsters’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 kids’s well being, so I might advocate working to decrease and eradicate these chemical substances instantly.»

Contaminants Included in Mamavation’s EPA Licensed Laboratory Testing

Mamavation despatched 9 kids’s multivitamins to 2 totally different EPA-certified laboratories on the lookout for particular problematic contaminants that will not be listed on an ingredient panel. These components are by no means discovered on an ingredient label as a result of they don’t seem to be 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 will not be «deliberately added» doesn’t suggest they will not impression your well being over time and utilization. Our labs examined for the next contaminants and located a few of them current in kids’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 evaluation: «Youngsters’s multivitamins purpose to help the wholesome improvement and welfare of America’s biggest treasures — its superb and delightful kids who’re the Nation’s future.

Given the belief that folks specific that their kids’s well being and vitality can 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 must be a bedrock of this complete trade.

Mamavation’s examine exhibits that this bedrock is shaky at finest and challenges the advertising and marketing firms 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 «Without end Chemical» Analytes Examined, Together with PFOA and PFOS

PFAS «ceaselessly chemical substances» are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances used as stain-resistant, waterproof, 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 primarily based on biomonitoring proof from the Heart for Illness Management (CDC) that PFAS are in nearly all Individuals. Due to this fact, these exposures can hurt most Individuals. For this investigation, we elected to check for forty particular PFAS analytes listed beneath utilizing EPA technique 1633:

Glyphosate — Testing Particulars

Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine] is the lively 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 potential to make the most of glyphosate as a broadcast herbicide whereas not killing the crops they have been sprayed on. Glyphosate can also be extensively used for deforestation efforts, reminiscent of killing brush in hearth zones, and can also be relied on closely by landscapers to kill weeds on inexperienced belts and golf programs. Finally, glyphosate is used for eliminating weeds and shrubs, reminiscent of annual and perennial grasses, broadleaf weeds, and woody species.

Glyphosate was initially patented as a chelator and an antibiotic, which suggests it has the flexibility to cease nutrient absorption and decimate delicate intestine flora. These two easy info 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 Listing of carcinogens and reproductive toxins in California.

Mamavation despatched 9 kids’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 components per billion (ppb) detection restrict. That is the usual check going as little as potential in a business lab. (College labs or experimental labs utilizing non-standardized testing might be able to go decrease.)

500+ Further Pesticide Laboratory Assessments for Youngsters’s Multivitamins — Testing Particulars

9 kids’s multivitamins have been despatched to our EPA-certified lab and analyzed utilizing two totally different strategies, which totaled testing for 587 pesticides right down to the bottom standardized stage, 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 technique appeared on the following pesticides:

The second group was analyzed utilizing the LC-MS/MS method 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 throughout the physique, which might impression a number of necessary well being capabilities. 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 might be allowed to be current as an oblique meals additive in response to the FDA, nevertheless, 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 kids’s multivitamins for the next metals:

Mamavation then adjusted the end result to replicate California Prop. 65 primarily based on serving dimension into ug/day outcomes. With regards to defending customers, California has much 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 «secure harbor ranges» for many of the heavy metals we examined: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Prop. 65 requires companies to offer warnings to customers residing in California about vital 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 setting. By requiring this info to be supplied, it permits customers in California to make knowledgeable choices about their publicity to those chemical substances.

Listed below are the No Important 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 kids’s multivitamins to totally different EPA-certified laboratories on the lookout for traces of contaminants:

All merchandise have been despatched to the laboratory in authentic packaging and bought between June and December 2024. Merchandise have been chosen by Mamavation neighborhood 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 check all of the advisable manufacturers as a result of we had a restricted price range for this testing. After analyzing the outcomes of every product, we determined to categorize merchandise into three classes.

If you need to donate to our efforts, you are able to do so by giving a tax-deductible donation right here by way of Environmental Well being Sciences. It’s also possible to help our efforts by procuring our affiliate hyperlinks. Please be aware that hyperlinks beneath are affiliate in nature and any purchases pays us again for the testing and permit us to do extra testing sooner or later.

Mamavation’s Investigation of Youngsters’s Multivitamins

Not Our Favourite Youngsters’s Multivitamins

These kids’s multivitamins have been discovered to have quantifiable quantities of PFAS «ceaselessly chemical substances» OR they’d excessive quantities of phthalates current. If we discovered pesticides, we’d have positioned these merchandise right here.

Higher Multivitamins

These kids’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 “Technique Reporting Restrict” and it means the bottom focus examined that may be reported reliably.

Finest Multivitamins

These kids’s multivitamins have been free from PFAS «ceaselessly chemical substances,» phthalates, pesticides, and ranges of heavy metals which might be low sufficient that they don’t require a Prop. 65 Warning in California.

Concerning 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 true 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.