the FDA has set maximum allowable thresholds.
Because lead pollution taints the water and soil that is used to grow crops for human consumption, all foods may contain some trace amount of the heavy metal (parts per trillion). Shoddy industrial food-processing practices have led to even more contamination from heavy metals. Trace levels of lead exist in many important foods we consume every day, but, generally speaking, regulators consider trace levels of lead contamination to be safe only because they are focused on short-term, acute effects that are almost never linked directly to the consumption of a food or dietary supplement. Lead is accepted in food at varying trace levels in part because lead is so difficult to avoid, and furthermore, because harmful effects from lead bioaccumulation typically show up years down the road with little solid connection to any specific foods, nutritional supplements, or protein powders.
When I appealed to Whole Foods to pull the lead-contaminated protein powders from their store shelves, the retailer did nothing to halt their sales of such products. Whole Foods continues to sell vegan, organic protein powders in its stores that show alarming concentrations of lead contamination because the raw materials are sourced from China. Instead of responding in a responsible way to my appeal, Whole Foods managers and employees began spreading rumors that claimed my laboratory didn’t exist and that none of their protein powders contained lead. Whole Foods is another example of a corporation that misleads health-conscious consumers into thinking they’re buying “clean” foods when, in reality, many of those foods have been contaminated with significant concentrations of lead.178
Children most affected by lead
According to the EFSA’s Scientific Opinion on Lead in Food, cereals were found to contribute most to a person’s daily dietary lead intake.179 This is particularly troubling in light of the fact that many cereals are marketed to the most vulnerable members of our society—kids. Children have been found to be at greater risk for lead poisoning and toxicity than adults because their systems are still developing and they usually absorb more lead than adults do. Fetuses and nursing infants are way less equipped to metabolize harsh toxins, so amounts that are harmful to an adult can be downright deadly to a baby.
Lead accumulation, as well as that of other heavy metals such as cadmium, in the roots and shoots of wheat and other grains remains a major concern, as a direct result of heavy metal contamination in soils around the globe.180 A study conducted by the University of Valencia in Spain compared the lead and cadmium content of twenty-nine different infant cereals commercially available on the market, and found consistent contamination levels of both cadmium and lead in the milk-free varieties, and even higher levels of lead in milk-containing infant cereals, foods that comprise a major part of an infant’s diet starting between four and six months old.181
Another dietary staple for infants who are not breast-fed is infant formula. As infant formulas require reconstitution before they are prepared, if lead is already in the drinking water (especially in a home more than twenty years old that may have old pipes) and the water is heated during the preparation process, infants can be exposed to dangerously high levels of lead through a diet completely reliant on formula as the main source of nutrition. While the FDA assumes that manufacturers will adhere to rules when creating a new formula product, the agency warns on its website that infant formulas may be marketed without prior FDA approval.182
Lead confirmed in more than 80 percent of food samples
Too many times, foodstuffs purchased at grocery stores across the country have later been found to be tainted with troubling levels of lead, though not enough testing is done to prevent lead from entering into the food supply. These high levels of lead are not limited to conventional or imported foods but also appear in foods raised organically. The Environmental Law Foundation commissioned a study in 2010 that sampled nearly 150 popular children’s food products, including fruit juices, fruit cocktail mixes, and even processed baby food. Foods tested were chosen from both conventional and organic sources. Using an EPA-certified lab in Berkeley, California, to test the nearly 400 samples taken, it was determined that an astounding 125 out of 146 foods contained disconcerting amounts of lead.183 The results were so damning that the FDA was compelled to respond, although the organization only tested thirteen samples of similar foods for comparison. The agency claimed that, while lead was found in the items, it was in parts per billion, and thus, was less than the 0.1 parts per million, or 100 ppb, the agency had set for candy in children.
My own testing of foods for lead has found alarming results, including:
• 500 ppb lead in cacao superfoods
• Over 500 ppb lead in certified organic rice protein
• Over 11 ppm (11,000 ppb) lead in organic mangosteen powder
• Over 300 ppb lead in turmeric supplements
• Over 400 ppb lead in green superfood powders
• Over 800 ppb in sea vegetable superfoods
• Over 150 ppb in healthy breakfast cereals
• Over 300 ppb in cilantro powder
• Over 1,000 ppb in chopped clams
• Over 300 ppb in maca root powder
• Over 100 ppb in some spirulina powders (from India)
• Over 500 ppb in common cooking spices
• Over 1,800 ppb in popular pet treats (made in China)
• Over 8,000 ppb in calcium supplements
• Over 600 ppb in some trace mineral supplements
• Over 7,000 ppb in citrus tree fertilizers
• Over 900 ppb in chlorella supplements grown in China (other samples of chlorella were far cleaner)
These are extraordinary results the FDA seems to pretend do not exist. Yet these results were derived from off-the-shelf purchases of foods and supplements consumed by people every single day.
During the government shutdown of October 2013, the FDA held off on sending out food-safety recall e-mails, so all of the releases between October 1 and October 17 were batch e-mailed on October 17. Among those were several warnings from different distributors that PRAN brand turmeric powder was contaminated with dangerously high levels of lead. Some batches reportedly contained 48 and 53 ppm, as the powder delivers a concentrated form of the root vegetable’s background exposure.184
Although the FDA began considering a limit on lead exposure from foods back in the 1930s due to lead-containing pesticides and the lead-based solder on food cans, even to this day, the agency has yet to establish a regulatory limit for lead levels in all foods across the board. Instead, the FDA has set limits on specific items in response to pressure by consumer advocate groups, such as bottled water (5 parts per billion185), children’s candy (0.1 parts per million186), and food additives (varies widely by additive). For example, the lead content in candy wasn’t even on the regulatory radar until 1994, when authorities in California discovered inks used in printed candy wrappers were seeping into the candy, causing the FDA to react in 1995 with the new standard.
In 1994, the FDA set a tentative daily limit for lead intake, which it termed the provisional tolerable total intake level (PTTIL), and included both food and nonfood sources. The bar was set so that the resulting daily lead limits in blood would be 75 µg/dL for adults, 25 µg/dL for pregnant women, 15 µg/dL for children over seven years, and 6 µg/dL for infants and children
