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439 points david927 | 8 comments | | HN request time: 2.752s | source | bottom

What are you working on? Any new ideas which you're thinking about?
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cjflog ◴[] No.44424012[source]
Currently a one-man side project:

https://laboratory.love

Last year PlasticList discovered that 86% of food products they tested contain plastic chemicals—including 100% of baby food tested. The EU just lowered their "safe" BPA limit by 20,000x. Meanwhile, the FDA allows levels 100x higher than what Europe considers safe.

This seemed like a solvable problem.

Laboratory.love lets you crowdfund independent testing of specific products you actually buy. Think Consumer Reports meets Kickstarter, but focused on detecting endocrine disruptors in your yogurt, your kid's snacks, whatever you're curious about.

Here's how it works: Find a product (or suggest one), contribute to its testing fund, get detailed lab results when testing completes. If a product doesn't reach its funding goal within 365 days, automatic refund. All results are published openly. Laboratory.love uses the same methodology as PlasticList.org, which found plastic chemicals in everything from prenatal vitamins to ice cream. But instead of researchers choosing what to test, you do.

The bigger picture: Companies respond to market pressure. Transparency creates that pressure. When consumers have data, supply chains get cleaner.

Technical details: Laboratory.love works with ISO 17025-accredited labs, test three samples from different production lots, detect chemicals down to parts per billion. The testing protocol is public.

You can browse products, add your own, or just follow specific items you're curious about: https://laboratory.love

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1. agilob ◴[] No.44424170[source]
>All results are published openly.

Where can I find the link? Do I need to submit my email to see the "openly published results"?

replies(2): >>44424500 #>>44424525 #
2. ◴[] No.44424500[source]
3. etinquis ◴[] No.44424525[source]
https://laboratory.love/plasticlist may work for you. If not, the input 'email@example.com' is what led me there.
replies(2): >>44425095 #>>44425659 #
4. derac ◴[] No.44425095[source]
cool idea, fyi on an s21, each word (bisphenols etc) has the last letter going to a second line.
5. wavemode ◴[] No.44425659[source]
> Powdered Milk from 1952 Korean War Rations: High in Phthalates

Wow, thanks for the heads up, website. I'll throw out my stock of these right away.

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6. ecb_penguin ◴[] No.44426060{3}[source]
I don't understand? It would be useful to see how items from the past test for these materials. There are also plenty of current items.

Do you have an arbitrary date we should use to ignore items for testing?

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7. nik_0_0 ◴[] No.44426678{4}[source]
Seems like a fair point, given OPs opening says “crowdfund independent testing of specific products you actually buy” - having the top products be more commonly bought items may be interesting.
8. wavemode ◴[] No.44427249{4}[source]
I was really just making a joke