Posted on 06/20/2017 7:59:25 AM PDT by Morgana
(WFLA) — A new report released by the Environmental Defense Fund found that a surprising amount of baby food samples had detectable levels of lead.
Researchers analyzed eleven years of federal data, tested 2,164 baby food samples and found lead in roughly 20 percent of them. The toxic metal was most commonly found in grape juice samples (89 percent), sweet potatoes samples (86 percent), and teething biscuits (47 percent).
(Excerpt) Read more at tristateupdate.com ...
Also don’t know how high a level constitutes ‘detectable’.
With the sensitivity of todays detection systems, I am surprised that they did not find lead in *all* samples.
Note this is from the Environmental Defense Fund, a leftist scare group.
Even they say the “levels were relatively low”.
Poison always depends on the dose.
“The study does not mention the brand of each sample.”
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What the heck.
All life is risk.
The risk from this is so low as to be imperceptible.
Everything has a risk to it.
Weasel words and hyperbole. What is "Detectable Levels"? More important, how do they compare to "Toxic Levels"? That important little fact was left out of the story.
For example, if we can detect lead at .001 part per million, and toxicity is 1000 parts per million, then "detectability" is nothing to lose sleep over.
Lead is naturally occurring in the environment, as is arsenic and dozens of other toxic compounds. In miniscule levels, they're fine, in fact, there's no getting away from them.
That being said, I wouldn't give your grandkids lead paint to chew on. But, this article is designed to push people's buttons with one dubious "fact".
Lead is measured in parts per billion and I think if there are 41 parts per billion it is detectable.
Will it do the child any harm?
Probably not.
But it does make for a nice scary headline.
Thank you ... you provide a voice of sanity in a world overwhelmed by insanity and FAKE NEWS.
Is all this grown/made in the USA?
I took a look at the actual report. Seems lots of food Nazi scare mongering. I didn’t have time to really read it, but it seemed to imply that much of the lead in the samples was found environmentally and not intentionally, this impossible to eliminate, but send us money so we can work on it.
Here’s from a FDA report
Lead is widely present in our environment due to its natural occurrence and human activities that have introduced it into the general environment such as the use of leaded gasoline. Because lead may be present in environments where food crops are grown and animals used for food are raised, various foods may contain unavoidable but small amounts of lead that do not pose a significant risk to human health.
The scaremongers use language to scare. Detectable amounts, trace levels etc. A sample of grape juice had 105 ppb. Parts per billion of lead. But a kid may drink an ounce or two of grape juice a day so it’s a very small amount of actual lead.
There is no safe blood level of lead. However, a level of 5 mcg/dL is used to indicate a possibly unsafe level for children. Children whose blood tests at those levels should be tested periodically. A child whose levels become too high — generally 45 mcg/dL or higher — should be treated.
The article at the top of the thread doesn’t provide important info, like the actual levels found in the food. Without that info, this article is useful only for fear-mongering. Which, I’m guessing, was the publisher’s intent.
It’s so easy to make baby food if you have a small food processor. Our $20 one lasted through three children and we made all their food, controlling the ingredients through the entire process. It saves a ton of money, too.
And it will succeed, even with people on this forum.
Aeons ago, I taught physics and 'general science' in high school. Sometimes, students would ask "Mr. Mountain, why do we need to know this stuff? I'm not going to be a scientist ... what good will this do me?"
One answer I would give was that:
1) It will help you understand newspaper articles on science topics.
2) It will help you understand when the newspaper article is lying to you ...
About 20 percent of baby food samples tested over a decade-long period had detectable levels of lead
Don't fall for every scare that makes the press. Most people have a dismal appreciation or understanding of risk. W. Kip Viscusi has written on the subjec tin general, and also how social and regulatory reactions are sometimes counterproductive, that is, they make things WORSE. LOL.
The processing is usually not where the lead comes from. It comes from the dirt that it is grown in.
So unless you have unusually lead free soil and grow your own veggies then the food will have some traces of lead in it.
All food has things in it that are poisonous, that is why we have a liver and kidneys.
Our mothers and fathers were certainly exposed to all kinds of lead, as were we. Gasoline had Tetraethyllead added to it. People would use gasoline as a solvent like a dry cleaning agent. We would rinse grease off our hands with gasoline.
Our household plumbing was sealed with molten lead on site. Drain pipes were packed with oakum and filled with molten lead.
After all this lead exposure we turned out normal … didn't we?
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