Heavy Metal Toxicity

Getting too much, and sometimes too little, of various elements has consequences for our overall health.

Who should consider heavy metals and essential elements testing? Anyone who:

• Smokes
• Has exposure to private well water or aging pipes
• Is concerned about heavy metals in foods like vegetables, rice, and seafood
• Has mercury dental work
• Lives in an older home or near an industrial area
• Has thyroid-related health issues
• Has or has had exposure to MRI contrast agents

ZRT's heavy metals and essential elements testing provides the most accurate test results. Using ICP-MS, the gold standard for element analysis allows for high specificity and sensitivity into the parts-per-trillion.

Heavy metals and essential elements affect different systems of the body, so it makes sense that they can’t all be measured in the same body fluid. ZRT tests using the most scientifically appropriate medium – either urine or dried blood spot – for our elements profiles.



For example, urinary cadmium is the best measure of accumulated exposure, while blood spot assesses only recent exposure. Blood is the only appropriate medium to assess lead exposure, and urine is the only appropriate medium for arsenic.



• Dried Urine

ZRT’s dried urine method offers a discreet, at-home testing alternative and eliminates the hassles of all-day jug urine collection. Patients collect urine on a filter strip twice during the day. Dried strips are shelf-stable for 30 days and easy to mail back to the lab for analysis.



• Dried Blood Spot

Allows testers to collect samples in the privacy of their own homes and is simple and nearly painless, avoiding a trip to the phlebotomist.