13 replies to this topic

[normalizing]

i dont believe having your own device to test for toxins and metals in stuff you consume is affordable, but i think there are a lot of private labs that can do that for you. does anyone know how, where and how much it would cost to do your own tests of toxic materials, heavy metals and other contaminents in food, supplements you consume? it would be amazing if at least one of us can manage, afford to do this and keep reporting back results in perhaps independent part of this forum so others can look up in and discuss.

[YOLF]

Hi Normalizing,

 

I've actually had a project on the back burner to purchase such a device and the consumables necessary to use it. I've even gotten familiar with the maintenance of such devices and found an adviser to help me or someone else learn how to use it as well as a lab use broker who would sell access to it so we could monetize it and potentially create a full time job and earn some good money from it that will allow us to test more stuff.

 

What's needed now is to run a fundraiser and find somewhere we can host it. The lab broker I've procured might consider hiring/training someone to run it if we can get enough commercial commitments to make it worthwhile. That's my next step if you'd like to help. I've compiled a list of vendors for an Advertising Manager to use to sell advertising for us. It's a membership benefit though, so you'd need a membership to get started with this.

[niner]

CC, what sort of instrumentation are you talking about?  An atomic absorption spectrophotometer?  HPLC?  Analysis of supplement contaminants is a non-trivial problem.

[YOLF]

I'm not certain of the specific equipment or capabilities yet. Just the idea of testing supplements and other substances (mainly for potency). We might also be able to combine whatever spectrometer etc we get with other, less expensive test kits for common (heavy metal) contaminants. I'll have to consider whether or not we can offer a competitive and complete service with whatever we buy. 

 

What are your thoughts? What cost efficient options would we be looking at for a project like this?

[niner]

It's pretty complicated.  Unless you have a lot of things to test, you could probably find an existing lab that could do it for less money.  There are photometric test strip systems for analysis of common heavy metals in water.  You'd need to dissolve the sample and remove anything that would interfere with the test, which might be harder than it sounds.  I don't know how accurate these things are, though.  The ones I've seen on the net look kind of sketchy.  To set up a lab to do it right would be pretty expensive, like a couple hundred thousand dollars or more.

[normalizing]

niner thats what i was thinking. help finding a lab to test it for us. otherwise cryonics wants people to invest in a very expensive project that might fail.

isnt it better we invest, everyone using the forum that is, put some dollar here and there for testing in some independent lab that this forum can associate with? im not even sure which place can do this, i just believe there are such places but hard to find, at least for me. :/

 

Edited by normalizing, 06 September 2014 - 09:20 AM.

[YOLF]

Last time I checked (2011), it was about $800-1000 to get testing done for unknown substances with the result being a list of chemicals contained in the sample. It's not cheap to do either. $10k fundraiser would yield roughly 10-15 substances being tested. Either way, we'd need to go big or focus on the most cost effective thing we can do. If through the fundraiser, we put a valuable piece of equipment in the hands of someone who can use it for RLE research (and do whatever we could do with it to benefit the community), we've succeeded. 

 

I've seen used electron microscopes for $10-15k. I'm wondering if we could use something like this to randomly sample and identify unknowns. I'm sure it wouldn't be a conventional use of one, but it could be a valuable improvisation? Thoughts?

[niner]

No, you wouldn't be able to use an EM for this kind of testing, because the molecules of the compound and its various contaminants are all too small to be resolved with an EM.   You'd want an HPLC or LCMS system, and an atomic absorption spectrophotometer for metals.  With used equipment, you could probably set up a lab for under $100K. 

[normalizing]

i think i got a headache from reading those prices. one would think in modern times there could even be an app for smart phone that could test such things but i guess long way to go....

[Kalliste]

It will be until the late twenties when people can do this with ease with microanalytic hardware and software. Frankly I expect that by then there will be much more interesting things that can be done by then. Using indoor agri with LED lights and controlled soil will do a lot to resolve this issue. I wonder what mature GMO could do to help?

Edited by Cosmicalstorm, 07 September 2014 - 10:05 AM.

[YOLF]

It will be until the late twenties when people can do this with ease with microanalytic hardware and software. Frankly I expect that by then there will be much more interesting things that can be done by then. Using indoor agri with LED lights and controlled soil will do a lot to resolve this issue. I wonder what mature GMO could do to help?

GMOing plants (esp. those used for feed) to reject metals would be a great idea for a project. Heavy metals accumulate quite a bit as we age. I knew a PhD from China (he went back) who was working with designer plant genetics, I'll have to see if I still have a way to connect with him. 

[maximum411]

Check out SCiO. Not sure if it would be able to detect minor contaminants, but it can identify substances.

[normalizing]

what is this? those abrevations translate to many things.

[maximum411]

It's a personal mobile IR spectrometer developer on Kickstarter.