Posted on 12/25/2011 8:02:27 PM PST by neverdem
Arsenic has long been recognized as a poison and a contaminant in drinking water, but now concerns are growing about arsenic in foods, especially in fruit juices that are a mainstay for children.
Controversy over arsenic in apple juice made headlines as the school year began when Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of The Dr. Oz Show, told viewers that tests hed commissioned found 10 of three dozen apple-juice samples with total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb). Theres no federal arsenic threshold for juice or most foods, though the limit for bottled and public water is 10 ppb. The Food and Drug Administration, trying to reassure consumers about the safety of apple juice, claimed that most arsenic in juices and other foods is of the organic type that is essentially harmless.
But an investigation by Consumer Reports shows otherwise. Our study, including tests of apple and grape juice (download a PDF of our complete test results), a scientific analysis of federal health data, a consumer poll, and interviews with doctors and other experts, finds the following:
Roughly 10 percent of our juice samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen. One in four samples had lead levels higher than the FDAs bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. As with arsenic, no federal limit exists for lead in juice. Apple and grape juice constitute a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic, according to our analysis of federal health data from 2003 through 2008. Children drink a lot...
--snip--
The form of arsenic in the examples above is inorganic arsenic. Its a carcinogen known to cause bladder, lung, and skin cancer in people and to increase risks of cardiovascular disease, immunodeficiencies, and type 2 diabetes...
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerreports.org ...
His father had diabetes, so his is a clear issue of heredity, imho.
We have a well with two filtering systems plus a filter in our refrigerator, but testing for arsenic isn't a bad idea.
I figure the green outside red inside enviros who want more control of the population of this country. This is a nice link to Algore’s global warming and thus need the government to control and the entire ENVIONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY which seeks to supplant the US government and the constitution in who runs this nation’s economy...
Or who is incharge of running this nation’s economy into total ruin.
You have a lot of faith in the government! No, if a juice-chemical company plays by the government rules, the government will not shut them down. Government agencies are not really there to protect you.
That just scorches my cyber-marshmallows.
“You have a lot of faith in the government! No, if a juice-chemical company plays by the government rules, the government will not shut them down. Government agencies are not really there to protect you.”
How do you come to think that I have a lot of faith in the govt? All I did was ask a simple question. You seem to be looking for someone to pounce on.
This article claims 10 ppb of arsenic in juice, which is still at the limit the World Health Organization deems safe. One Taiwan study claims 150 ppb is the level where cancer mortality increases.
My post was prompted by the fact that arsenic is a naturally occurring mineral, and naturally exists in groundwater. Some herbicides contain arsenic, and perhaps that arsenic can be eliminated. But other than that, what can be done about arsenic? How much money would it take to go from 10 ppb to 9 ppb, even though both levels are considered safe? If the arsenic is coming from the water, then it could be very expensive, and with little real improvement in safety.
If the costs of going from 10 to 9 ppb are passed to the consumer, will consumers switch to other drinks which are even less healthy, like soda?
Could the money spent to reduce the arsenic from 10 to 9 ppb be used in some other way which would save even more lives?
I believe a reduction would be a push. Ditto stroke. All kinds of cancer is the second and stroke is the third leading cause of mortality. Diabetics have as much risk of risk of having a myocardial infarction, aka "heart attack" as someone who already had one. Myocardial infarction is the leading cause of mortality. When you tally up all costs of all the morbidities associated with diabetes, e.g. diabetic retinopathy aka impaired eyesight and blindness, nephropathy aka kidney failure with dialysis and transplants, amputations, coronary artery disease and stroke, you could be talking about saving real money.
You don't have to read beyond the results section of the abstract(initial summary for you in Rio Linda) to see that the authors believe inorganic arsenic "induced diabetes differ from those underlying type-2 diabetes, which is typically characterized by insulin resistance."
When you see a URL like http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, it's not a whackjob site on the net. You paid for the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health.
Too much arsenic could explain in part the pandemic levels of diabetes in Navajo and Pima Indian tribes in the southwest.
There’s no controlling authority.
How many government standards were set arbitrarily so as to employ more bureaucrats or satisfy the sales needs of a major donor?
In particular the following passage:
“Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine (Heh. More like Waffle House and McDonalds) - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.”
Enjoy the read about the 101st in A-stan. This was posted on FR in its heyday. : )
What about grapefruit juice?
CA....
I went to the site and searched. I saw an article that said a study done in Bangladesh came up with NO LINK BETWEEN ARSENIC AND DIABETES. Just say’in.
Here's the first paragraph of the discussion section of the citation linked in comment# 87:
The arsenicosis-endemic areas of Zimapán and Lagunera were chosen for this study because tens of thousands of local residents are currently exposed to a wide range of iAs concentrations in drinking water and because relatively detailed information exists about historical levels of iAs in the local drinking water supplies. Unlike most previous studies, we used multiple biomarkers to classify diabetes and to characterize exposure to iAs. In spite of a relatively small number of subjects recruited for this study we were able to show that the exposure to iAs was positively associated with all three diabetes indicators. Our findings contradict results of a recent study that found no significant association of iAs exposure with diabetes in another arsenicosis area located in Bangladesh [30]. This study used only glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and glucosuria to classify diabetic individuals. Although the HbA1c level in blood is now an accepted measure for diagnosis of diabetes in the US, it is unclear whether it was also validated for the Bangladeshi population. Glucosuria is not a reliable indicator of diabetes [31]. Thus, using the validated diabetes indicators may be essential for linking iAs exposure to risk of diabetes. Notably, our data on the negative associations between iAs exposure and FPI and HOMA-IR suggest that the mechanisms of iAs-induced diabetes differ from those underlying type-2 diabetes, which is typically characterized by insulin resistance (i.e., increased HOMA-IR) and hyperinsulinemia [32].They have problems with the methods in the Bangladeshi study. I can't help with all the abbreviations used, but a "List of Abbreviations" immediately follows the one paragraph of "Conclusions" which follows the discussion section. If you read all of the discussion sction, you'll find some esoteric abbreviations, e.g. HG-CT-AAS. Translated that means hydride generation, cryotrapping atomic absorption spectrometry, a fancy technique to detect and quantify elements, in this case inorganic arsenic and its metabolites in urine.
Thank you very much for pinging me to that. I put the link in a regular e-mail and sent it out to some special friends. They will be very proud.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this. The linkage certainly gives one something to think on and be concerned. I’ve always known in my heart that there is something nasty going on, to have so many people getting this disease, and a few other maladies of late.
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