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Editorial standards

How we research

Stasis grades your water, air, and light against the published health science, so a claim is only worth as much as the source behind it. You can hold us to every one of them.

Reviewed July 2026. We update a page, and this date, when its primary source changes.

The standards

  1. We cite only sources that show their work

    Peer-reviewed studies, government agencies, and established health institutions publishing their methods. If a claim cannot be traced to one, it does not go on the site.

  2. Every health claim carries its citation, in the open

    Across the science library, each number and each health claim links to the source it came from, right next to the claim. You should never have to take our word for it. If you want to read the study, the link is there.

  3. We grade against the health line

    A legal limit is set for what a whole utility can feasibly deliver, weighing cost and available technology. The level at which a contaminant stops affecting your health is a separate, and usually lower, number. The EPA publishes both: a health-based goal (its maximum contaminant level goal) and the enforceable limit set as close to that goal as feasible.

    We grade your readings against the health line and show you the gap. You can see the numbers per contaminant in the science library and the full grading method on our methodology page.

  4. We say how settled the evidence is

    Science does not run at one confidence level. Some effects are settled beyond serious debate, others are contested or still emerging. We label which is which, in plain language, instead of dressing an early finding up as established fact. Where the evidence is thin, we tell you it is thin.

  5. We never overstate what a fix does

    A fix that helps with one problem does not solve every problem, and we name exactly where its help ends. Reverse osmosis removes PFAS from your drinking water, not from the food packaging you also eat from. A HEPA filter captures fine particles, not the gas stove producing them. Every recommendation states what it does and what it does not.

  6. We publish what we deliberately do not test, and why

    Testing everything is not rigor, it is noise. A home test cannot measure some things honestly, others have no clear indoor exposure route or too little evidence to act on. We keep a public list of what we leave out and the reason for each. See what we do not test.

  7. We keep pages current, and dated

    Every science page shows the date it was last updated. When a primary source changes, a limit is revised or a major study lands, we update the page and its date rather than leave a stale number in place. An old citation is a broken one.

Sources we hold to

The bodies whose published work our pages rest on. Where a specific claim depends on a single study, we cite that study by name on the page it appears.

  • EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Drinking-water limits and contaminant health assessments.
  • CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Population health data and exposure guidance.
  • ATSDR Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Toxicological profiles for individual substances.
  • NIH National Institutes of Health Peer-reviewed biomedical research and the National Library of Medicine.
  • WHO World Health Organization International air and drinking-water quality guidelines.
  • OEHHA California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Health-based exposure levels used in California.
  • CARB California Air Resources Board Indoor and outdoor air pollution research.
  • Journals Peer-reviewed literature Primary studies, cited individually where a claim rests on them.

When two credible sources disagree, we say so and grade to the more protective health-based value. We do not cite a source we have not read.

Questions about our method

How does Stasis decide what to test?

We test what the published health research shows can affect you at the levels found in ordinary homes, and what a measurement can actually resolve. A contaminant is a candidate when it has a real indoor exposure route, a body of peer-reviewed or government evidence behind it, and a test that returns a trustworthy number. When the evidence is thin, the exposure route does not apply indoors, or a home test cannot measure it honestly, we leave it out and say so.

What sources do you use?

Peer-reviewed journals, U.S. government agencies (the EPA, CDC, ATSDR, and NIH), and health bodies including the World Health Organization, California's OEHHA, and the California Air Resources Board. We do not cite wellness blogs, supplement sellers, or unsourced claims. Every health claim in our science library links to the specific source behind it, so you can check our work.

Do you review your pages?

Yes. Every science page carries the date it was last updated. We revisit a page when its primary source changes, for example when the EPA revises a limit or a major study lands, and we update both the page and its date rather than leave an old number in place.

Every reading we grade for you is held to these standards. Start with your address.

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