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439 points david927 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.287s | source

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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weepinbell ◴[] No.44425533[source]
This is really cool - it'd be great to test for other chemicals like heavy metals.

Specifically, rice seems to contain a good deal of arsenic (https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-muc...) and I've been interested for a while in trying to find some that has the least, as I eat a lot of rice.

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giantg2 ◴[] No.44426930[source]
Rice is easy to solve by just buying California grown. They have the lowest regional levels in the world and I expect the variance amongst those growers to not have significant impact.
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tmaly ◴[] No.44427222[source]
How do you find California grown in other states? Often it just says US
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1. giantg2 ◴[] No.44427949[source]
Some brands tell you. I think Nishiki is one of the big ones. There are family farms that sell online too.