This page sets out how content on Toxin Free Lab is researched, sourced, written and corrected. It is written to be held to.
Sourcing
Every factual claim traces to one of five source types, and every figure links to whoever produced it in the same sentence or immediately after. A number without a source does not get published.
- Manufacturer disclosures. Ingredient pages, restricted-substances lists, safety data sheets and published specifications.
- Regulatory and government sources. CPSC recall notices, EPA classifications and programme listings, FDA guidance, state chemical definitions.
- Independent third-party databases. EWG Skin Deep, the EWG Guide to Healthy Cleaning, EPA Safer Choice, certification body registers.
- Published research and court filings. Peer-reviewed literature where it exists; complaints, settlements and consent terms where a claim has been tested legally.
- Verified-buyer feedback at scale. Patterns across many reviews, reported as patterns, never a single anecdote presented as evidence.
How a page gets written
Each audit starts with the question a reader is actually asking, then works from the documents outward. We check that the product or brand exists and is what we think it is, read what the manufacturer publishes, check how independent bodies classify the named ingredients, and look for what the existing coverage gets wrong or leaves out.
If an article would only restate what is already widely published, it does not get written. Every page here leads with something specific that the existing coverage does not say.
What we will not do
- We do not run laboratory tests and never claim to. We have no laboratory, no instruments and no measurements of our own. Every lab result cited belongs to the body that produced it and is linked.
- We do not declare a named brand or product toxic, dangerous or unsafe. We report what is disclosed, what is withheld, and how recognised bodies classify the named ingredients. The conclusion is the reader’s.
- We do not invent evidence. No fabricated statistics, no invented study citations, no expert quotes that were never given, no manufacturer guidance we cannot source to the manufacturer.
- We do not claim original photography we did not take. Images are manufacturer media used per rights terms, licensed stock, or original diagrams, and are described as such.
- We do not accept payment for coverage, placement, ranking or conclusions. No sponsored posts, no paid guest posts, no link insertions.
- We do not omit inconvenient findings. Where a brand discloses well we say so, including brands with no affiliate programme.
Precision rules
Most confusion in this category comes from collapsing distinct things into one. We hold these lines:
- Chemical families are named precisely. PFOA is not PTFE. PTFE is a PFAS. Teflon is a brand name, not a compound.
- Presence is not exposure, and exposure is not harm. Where the route of exposure is the deciding factor, we say so.
- An unregulated marketing term is identified as unregulated, and we name the agency that does not define it.
- “Fragrance” as a single listed ingredient is described as a disclosure gap, not as evidence of anything specific.
Health and safety content
Nothing on this site is medical advice and the publisher is not a clinician. Where a topic touches health — respiratory sensitivity, contact allergy, chemical exposure — we say so plainly and point readers to a qualified professional rather than offering guidance we are not qualified to give.
Corrections
Factual errors are corrected as soon as they are confirmed. Substantive corrections are noted on the page rather than made silently, so a reader can see what changed.
Brands are welcome to write in. If we have misread your published documentation, send the source document and the page will be updated. That is the fastest route for anyone who believes something here is wrong, and it is acted on by the publisher directly rather than routed through a team.
Independence
Toxin Free Lab is funded by affiliate commission, disclosed in full in the affiliate disclosure. Commission does not determine which products are covered, how they are assessed, or what the conclusion is. Where the honest answer is that a cheaper product does the job, or that nothing in a category is worth buying, that is what the page says.
Review and updates
Formulations change without notice. An audit describes what was published at the time it was written, and the date appears on every page. Pages are revisited when a source document changes materially, when a recall or regulatory action occurs, or when a reader tells us something has moved on.
Full methodology is on how we audit products. To report an error, use the contact page.