[Broken_Hippo]

How can you be sure? How can you get the information to know whether or not your children's toys, your medicines, your electic equipment, wall paint, food, and everything else you consume or use is safe?

You can't. So... abstain from everything? Make everything yourself - how will you have time with a job? Will you know the food you grow is safe and that your ground isn't polluted with things you can't test for at home? How about the equipment used to make that food - is the metal in that plow made of lead? Is the engine on the tractor safe?

Your due diligence is only possible because other people - usually with specialized education and/or experience - have made laws and standards to keep you safe. You don't have to personally check everything.

[DANmode]

I don’t need to know if the plow has lead - I just test the Cheerios.

Try again.

You can answer the questions the exact same ways the other path uses,

yes,

and often with more rigor/vigor than just “legal minimum”.

[bombcar]

I seriously doubt you check every batch of foodstuffs entering your house.

[DANmode]

Good thing that’s not what was claimed!

You don’t need to check every box of Cheerios to know to avoid Cheerios.

I’ll review - as deeply as possible - the supply chains for my meats, produce, etc.

The more local you go, the more possible this becomes.

[Broken_Hippo]

You are believing a lie, then, and seem to have missed the point.

You simply cannot have the knowledge to know if everything is safe - no matter what your specialty, there are things you'll have to just trust others for safety. Sure, you might buy a lead test kit that someone else has made, but the only way to know that the test kit works is to monitor your family for lead poisoning unless you have specialized knowledge. And if you have that specialized knowledge, it'll come at the cost of other specialized knowledge. You can't personally know if that bridge you drive on is safe AND know about the metal in your plow AND know if the light bulb you bough is a hazard AND know that your antibiotic matches the label on the box instead of it being that one you are allergic to AND know all the other stuff is safe.

Everything requires trust in products or services unless you have information.

[DANmode]

Yes, trust is earned.

General Mills hasn’t earned that trust.

I specifically addressed why I don’t need to know what metal is in the plow

to review end-products,

and you chose to ignore that point

and just talk some more.

[Broken_Hippo]

I used the plow as an example in a list of things to illustrate the varied information you need to verify things and to illustrate that you can't simply do research on everything. Maybe you missed that?

You can't trust the company making the lead test kits any more than you can trust General Mills. How would you know the tests are real, especially without a regulating body to verify that stuff?

What if it isn't General Mills and Cheerios? Do you test everything that comes in contact with your food? What is in their plows?

You aren't just testing the Cheerios. You are just choosing to trust one thing instead of another and you simply cannot have time to test all of the Cheerios in addition to the other things in life.

[DANmode]

To continue with your example:

Lead tests, and lead-testing labs, stay around by being accurate, reproducible science.

General Mills stays around by putting out wholesome commercials so you buy their slop.

My family and I could eat a total of 10 food products.

You don’t know my life, don’t project yours.