METALLOPATHY Evidence on heavy metals in people

Static evidence pages. Grades A to F. Sources named.

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Testing

What can a blood metal test tell you?

Venous whole blood lead is the standard test CDC uses, and the reference value of 3.5 µg/dL is not a toxicity threshold. NHANES also reports blood cadmium, total mercury, methylmercury, cobalt, and chromium for the U.S. population. A blood result describes exposure or body burden for that metal. It does not, by itself, diagnose a disease.

Lead

CDC says no safe blood lead level in children exists, and that the blood lead reference value of 3.5 µg/dL means 2.5 percent of U.S. children aged 1 to 5 years are at or above it. CDC says the value is not a health-based standard. Venous samples are less prone to contamination than skin pricks. MMWR 2021. Population figures are on the lead page.

Other metals measured in blood

The saved CDC tables for NHANES 2017 to 2018 include blood cadmium, blood total mercury, blood methylmercury, blood cobalt, and blood chromium. There is no aluminum or titanium blood table in that set. Geometric means and 95th percentiles for the metals that are measured are on each metal page. Those percentiles describe the surveyed population. They are not clinical cutoffs.

Related pages

Sources

  1. CDC MMWR 2021;70(43), doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7043a4
  2. CDC National Report data tables

Heavy Metal Index

Heavy Metal Index: ICP-MS testing. This Heavy Metal Index URL returned HTTP 200 on 15 October 2026. Figures on this page are not copied from that index. They come from the sources named above.

What's safe to buy

The Heavy Metal Tested and Certified public register listed no licensees on 15 October 2026. That page reported 0 certified brands and 0 certified products, and it stated that no brand has completed the three-lot baseline. A specimen layout on the register is an illustration, not a licensee. This page does not name or rank any brand.

The program states that certification is a measurement of a product against a published limit, not a statement that the product is safe. If a licensee is later listed for this category, it will be on the register.

This page summarizes cited documents. It does not diagnose or prescribe. Reviewed 15 October 2026.