Which toothpaste brands tested highest for lead in Lead Safe Mama's 2025 chart and what were their ppb values?
Executive summary
Lead Safe Mama’s community-funded 2025 testing shows a small group of toothpastes and tooth powders with very high lead measurements, led by Primal Life’s Dirty Mouth Kids Tooth Powder at 7,800 parts per billion (ppb), with At least two other brands—Redmond and VanMan’s—reported by Lead Safe Mama to exceed Washington State’s 1,000 ppb cosmetic limit, though their exact ppb values are not specified in the publicly cited summaries [1] [2].
1. The top outlier: Primal Life’s Dirty Mouth — 7,800 ppb
Lead Safe Mama’s reporting, summarized by multiple outlets, identifies Primal Life’s Dirty Mouth Kids Tooth Powder as the worst offender in the 2025 dataset, with a measured lead level of 7,800 ppb; that value is cited in RealSimple and Futurism summaries of the Lead Safe Mama chart [2] [1]. This number places Primal far above Washington State’s tighter 1,000 ppb cosmetic standard and well below the FDA’s far higher, longstanding federal limits for toothpaste (10,000 ppb for fluoride-free products and 20,000 ppb for fluoride toothpastes), a regulatory gap that commentators repeatedly flag [2] [3].
2. Other highest-ranked brands: Redmond and VanMan’s (exceeded 1,000 ppb; exact ppb not in summaries)
Multiple summaries of the Lead Safe Mama chart indicate that variants from Redmond and VanMan’s also exceeded Washington’s 1,000 ppb limit and are grouped with Primal as among the “highest” contaminations, but the accessible article snippets and summaries do not publish their precise ppb readings in the extracts provided here, so the record shows exceedance rather than an exact figure for those brands [1] [4]. Lead Safe Mama’s original comparative chart and PDF reportedly list all ppb values, but the excerpts available in this briefing did not reproduce those particular numeric entries [5] [6].
3. Broader pattern in the dataset and how Lead Safe Mama organizes results
Lead Safe Mama tested dozens of toothpastes and tooth powders through community-funded third‑party laboratory analysis and ordered products on the comparative chart by measured lead (ppb); reporting indicates many products contained detectable lead and that a substantial minority exceeded stricter state action levels such as Washington’s 1,000 ppb threshold [6] [1]. Summaries note that about 90% of the 51 items tested contained measurable lead and that 15 toothpastes were over roughly 300 ppb, with some above 500 ppb, demonstrating a wide distribution of contamination levels across brands [3] [1].
4. Regulatory context and interpretive frames
Interpretation of “highest” depends on the comparator: the FDA’s formal numeric action levels for toothpaste are orders of magnitude higher (10,000–20,000 ppb depending on fluoride status), which makes some of these measured values technically “legal” under federal rules even when public-health experts call them unsafe and Washington State’s cosmetics law caps lead at 1,000 ppb [3] [2]. Lead Safe Mama uses lower reference thresholds tied to proposed baby‑food standards and public‑health concerns; mainstream outlets note that public-health advocates emphasize “no safe level” of lead, particularly for children [3] [4].
5. Limits of the available reporting and recommended next steps
The publicly available summaries and press coverage clearly identify Primal at 7,800 ppb and report that Redmond and VanMan’s variants exceeded Washington’s 1,000 ppb limit, but the excerpted materials here do not supply a full, reproducible table of all precise ppb values for every brand tested—those detailed numbers are indicated to be in the Lead Safe Mama PDF chart and individual lab reports on the organization’s site [5] [6]. For readers seeking the complete ranked list and every ppb value, the original Lead Safe Mama comparative chart and linked lab reports are the primary sources to consult [5] [6].