Mamavation Investigation Finds Disturbing Toxins in Youngsters's Multivitamins

Initially revealed on Mamavation: July 29, 2025

What are the most secure youngsters’s multivitamins accessible with the bottom quantity of poisonous contaminants like pesticides, heavy metals, PFAS “eternally chemical compounds,” and phthalates?

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

You’ve trusted Mamavation to deliver you client research like most secure cooking oils examined for phthalates, most secure water filters to filter PFAS, and most secure probiotics for youths examined for indications of PFAS “eternally chemical compounds,” now be part of us for a client examine testing youngsters’s multivitamins for pesticides, PFAS “eternally chemical compounds,” phthalates, and heavy metals.

Disclosure: This client examine is launched in partnership with Environmental Well being Information. Scientific opinions had 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 had been offered by Environmental Well being Information and Mamavation group members. Notice that Mamavation has solely “spot-checked” the business and thus we can’t 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 implies Mamavation will obtain a portion of these gross sales and we are going to use that to pay ourselves again for the testing. It’s also possible to give a tax-deductible donation to our client 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 Standard Youngsters’s Multivitamins

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

“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 youngsters’s well being, so I might advocate working to decrease and remove these chemical compounds instantly.”

Contaminants Included in Mamavation’s EPA Licensed Laboratory Testing

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

Nevertheless, simply because these contaminants should not “deliberately added” does not imply 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 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: “Youngsters’s multivitamins purpose to help the wholesome improvement and welfare of America’s best 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 assume that an assurance that well-recognized poisonous chemical compounds are absent needs to be a bedrock of this complete business.

Mamavation’s examine reveals that this bedrock is shaky at greatest and challenges the advertising corporations to do significantly 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 client belief.”

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

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

It is also very clear primarily based on biomonitoring proof from the Heart for Illness Management (CDC) that PFAS are in just about 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 under 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 doable to make the most of glyphosate as a broadcast herbicide whereas not killing the crops they had been sprayed on. Glyphosate can also be extensively used for deforestation efforts, corresponding to killing brush in hearth zones, and can also be relied on closely by landscapers to kill weeds on inexperienced belts and golf programs. In the end, glyphosate is used for eliminating weeds and shrubs, corresponding 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 components per billion (ppb) detection restrict. That is the usual check going as little as doable in a business lab. (College labs or experimental labs utilizing non-standardized testing might be able to go decrease.)

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

9 youngsters’s multivitamins had been despatched to our EPA-certified lab and analyzed utilizing two completely 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 compounds 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 may 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 checklist of all of the phthalates which are allowed to be current as an oblique meals additive in line with the FDA, nonetheless, this checklist 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 consequence to mirror California Prop. 65 primarily based on serving dimension into ug/day outcomes. In terms of defending shoppers, California has much more stringent well being protecting ranges, however as a substitute of banning merchandise, they require producers to make use of label warnings as a substitute.

California’s Prop. 65 established “secure harbor ranges” for a lot of the heavy metals we examined: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Prop. 65 requires companies to offer warnings to shoppers residing in California about important exposures to chemical compounds that trigger most cancers, beginning defects, or different reproductive hurt.

These chemical compounds will be within the merchandise they buy, of their houses or workplaces, or launched into the setting. By requiring this info to be offered, it allows shoppers in California to make knowledgeable choices about their publicity to those chemical compounds.

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 Information from Our EPA-Licensed Laboratory Ranked

Mamavation despatched two units of 9 youngsters’s multivitamins to completely different EPA-certified laboratories searching for traces of contaminants:

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

We couldn’t buy and check all of the advisable manufacturers as a result of we had a restricted finances 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 via Environmental Well being Sciences. It’s also possible to help our efforts by buying our affiliate hyperlinks. Please notice that hyperlinks under 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 Youngsters’s Multivitamins

Not Our Favourite Youngsters’s Multivitamins

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

Higher Multivitamins

These youngsters’s multivitamins both had PFAS “eternally chemical compounds” or pesticides recognized by the lab, however they had 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.

Greatest Multivitamins

These youngsters’s multivitamins had been free from PFAS “eternally chemical compounds,” 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 impartial client research analyzing the intersection of endocrine-disrupting chemical compounds (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 client research on meals, drinks, private care merchandise and different such merchandise and thus democratizing science and testing for everybody.