You’ve probably heard about potential lead contamination in tumblers, drinking water, chocolate, packaged lunches, and even baby food. The cause for concern is justified: Lead is a potent ...

Scratch the pipe with a coin. If it scratches easily and the metal underneath looks shiny and silver, it’s probably lead. If the pipe doesn’t scratch easily or clearly appears to be copper ...

Lead pipes appear dull gray, unless they've been painted. "You can scratch it with a screwdriver," Harrington said. "If it gets shiny, it's probably lead." Harrington said a second test is to ...

"We had an antique in our house that his toys were stored in, and it was an old piece that the paint was chipping from, but I didn't think, 'oh, this is probably lead,'" said Jamie Noerpel.

It turns out, some of the red flags for lead are often easy to spot. “Alligator skin,” Holloway said. “And if that’s on the windowsill, that’s an indicator that there’s probably lead ...