Methodology

How We Work

This page describes the editorial methodology used by Lead Safe America. It is the procedural counterpart to our Editorial Standards, which states the principles. This page describes how those principles are operationalized.

Source hierarchy

Every quantitative claim, every regulatory characterization, every clinical guideline cited in our published work is sourced. We follow a hierarchy:

  1. Primary federal sources — EPA, CDC, HUD, FDA, OSHA, and Census Bureau publications. Federal Register entries for rulemakings. Direct agency datasets where available.
  2. Peer-reviewed academic publications — preferred for clinical and toxicological claims. We prioritize work indexed in PubMed.
  3. Professional organization publications — American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, and similar.
  4. Public-health agency publications — state health departments, the WHO, the Pan American Health Organization.
  5. Reputable journalism — used as secondary corroboration only, never as primary source for quantitative claims. Where journalism is cited, the underlying primary source is also cited.

We do not cite: Wikipedia (for primary claims), unsourced “review article” aggregators, manufacturer product literature, advocacy organization white papers without identified evidence base.

The review process

Methodology · Article Workflow

From Pitch to Publish

1. **Pitch** — accepted from credentialed contributors via pitches@leadsafeamerica.org. Pitch must include topic, primary sources to be referenced, and contributor credentials.
2. **First draft** — written by the contributor. Source citations embedded inline.
3. **Editorial review** — Editor-in-Chief reviews for source attribution completeness, framing accuracy, and editorial scope.
4. **Domain review** — for medical content, reviewed by Dr. David T. Reston, MD. For environmental health content, reviewed by Dr. Marian E. Holloway, ScD, MPH. The reviewer is named on the published article.
5. **Source verification** — every numerical claim is verified against the cited source by an editor not the original author.
6. **Publish** — published with byline, reviewer name, last-reviewed date, and full reference list.
7. **Periodic re-review** — articles are re-reviewed annually or when relevant federal rulemaking changes. Re-reviews update the last-reviewed date and disclose substantive changes.

Corrections protocol

Substantive errors result in public corrections. Our protocol:

  1. Receipt. Correction requests are acknowledged within three business days.
  2. Evaluation. The editorial team evaluates the request against the original sources and additional sources as needed.
  3. Resolution.
    – No error found: the requestor receives a substantive reply explaining the editorial position.
    – Minor error (typo, formatting, broken link): corrected silently with no public notation.
    – Substantive error (incorrect figure, misattributed quote, incorrect framing): corrected with a dated correction notice at the foot of the article. The notice describes what was changed.
    – Material framing error (an interpretation that requires substantive rework): the article is unpublished pending re-review. A note replaces it explaining the temporary unpublish, and the corrected version is published with a dated correction notice.

The corrections log is reviewed quarterly by the Editor-in-Chief.

Conflict of interest disclosures

Lead Safe America does not accept advertising, sponsored content, or affiliate revenue. Our editorial team has no equity, consulting relationships, or paid engagements with: paint manufacturers, water-utility contractors, dating-platform operators, gambling operators, or any party regulated by the agencies whose guidance we reference.

Where a contributor has a relevant prior or current professional relationship — for example, a research role at an academic institution that publishes lead-exposure work — that relationship is disclosed in the contributor’s bio.

What we are not

We are not a clinical practice. We do not provide individual clinical advice. We are not a regulator and have no enforcement authority. We are not a legal-services organization and do not provide legal advice on landlord-tenant disputes, real-estate transactions, or compliance matters.

We are an editorial publication. Our work is informational and is not a substitute for advice from licensed clinicians, attorneys, or your state regulatory agency.

Versioning

This methodology document is itself versioned. Changes are noted at the top of the page with a dated change log. Substantive methodological changes are announced via the Newsroom page.

Current version: 1.0
Last reviewed: [date set on publication]

For correspondence about methodology, source disputes, or correction requests, see Contact.