[HN Gopher] Applesauce lead poisoning cases in kids surge amid q...
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Applesauce lead poisoning cases in kids surge amid questions on FDA
oversight
Author : perihelions
Score : 50 points
Date : 2023-12-10 19:46 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| yawnxyz wrote:
| What a whacky headline from WaPo... they should have added "lead
| poisoning" in the title
| perihelions wrote:
| Okay. I (submitter) have edited s/lead/lead poisoning/ in the
| post title, following the HN guideline "please use the original
| title, unless it is... misleading". (I'm sure HN's mods will do
| their own edits, if they think of something better/more
| precise).
| bagels wrote:
| https://archive.is/sdKzx
| ed-209 wrote:
| Something ironic about access to info on low quality food being
| behind a paywall. Anyway this isn't a whoopsie or a surprise -
| FDA is the most transparently criminal part of the whole ediface.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Maybe I am misreading your comment, but I feel like the worst
| offenders/"most criminal" actors should be the ones allowing
| lead in their products, not the ones who are supposed to catch
| them.
| goldcd wrote:
| If it's anything like similar agencies in other countries,
| it'll be completely understaffed, funding will have been cut in
| the name of reducing 'big government' - and any infractions it
| manages to prosecute will end up with minor slaps on the wrist,
| that won't discourage the next person wanting to cut a corner.
|
| Always struck me as odd how few resources actually seem to get
| spent on the things that obviously keep us safe (clean water,
| clean air, safe foods etc). I do however admire the dark arts
| of those that manage to push back the safeguards here, that
| surely nobody would oppose.
| wrycoder wrote:
| The FDA isn't underfunded or understaffed by any stretch of
| the imagination. Their funding is mis-allocated and not
| optimally applied to protect the public that pays the
| funding.
| pdoege wrote:
| Are you sure? A quick review of the budget over time shows
| that the biggest outlays are on food and drugs, which seems
| correct? In fact the medical drug industry is what, $300B
| and food is around $1.2T? The FDA is around $8B or .5% of
| the industry. Seems lowish for proper oversite of 2 really
| important parts of our lives.
| infecto wrote:
| Agreed. Maybe it's an unrealistic expectation but I would
| expect publications to allow some articles to pass the paywall.
| autoexec wrote:
| > In 2021, two congressional reports found that many popular food
| products made for babies and toddlers contain significant levels
| of lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, yet an action plan to
| establish voluntary limits by April 2024 appears to have stalled.
|
| The reports show that the FDA has known that we've been spooning
| poison directly into the mouths of our babies for years (since at
| least 2019) and still the FDA can't even get _voluntary_ limits
| on how much poison is acceptable in a jar of "Gerber peas and
| carrots" put in place. Until companies are held meaningfully
| accountable for selling dangerous products, these kinds of
| problems will only continue, but the FDA seems to care more about
| the corporations than the public.
|
| I'd love to see the FDA continuously going around the country,
| randomly pulling products off of shelves, testing them, and then
| handing out massive fines to companies whose products are unsafe
| or mislabeled. I'd like to see more ways for people to test food
| products themselves too.
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| > I'd like to see more ways for people to test food products
| themselves too.
|
| This is the best way to circumvent the politics and corruption.
| autoexec wrote:
| The end result still needs to be accountability or else we're
| just spending money on test kits as an increasing amount of
| the food we buy goes right into the trash. It also means that
| those who can't afford all those kits will end up eating
| harmful products.
|
| This isn't something that can be solved at the consumer
| level. We need policy here, but in the meantime we should
| have options to keep our families safe.
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| No, but easier consumer testing is part of the solution.
|
| I liken this to security: You want layered security.
|
| Right now we have maybe one or two layers of detection at
| best.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Unfortunately these tests are still $100+ per test. Assuming
| there are tens of contaminants you might want to test for,
| and hundreds of foodstuffs in a typical pantry, the cost is
| out of range of a typical American.
|
| I would like to see a government grant for cheap testing
| methods. Either covid-like test strips which are sensitive
| enough and can measure 10+ contaminants for mere cents, or a
| government test centre which will test for free anything you
| mail to them using an XRF gun (expensive kit, but can test
| one thing every 5 seconds or so, making the amortized cost
| very low)
| bell-cot wrote:
| [sigh/]
|
| I don't know if current-gen hand-held XRF detection equipment
| would be sensitive enough to have spotted the tainted products.
| But it sure sounds simple for an occasional government safety
| inspector to walk up & down the aisles of grocery stores, drug
| stores, toy stores, etc. with a detector, looking for unsuspected
| contamination (with lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, or just
| about any heavy metal).
| Syonyk wrote:
| The people who refuse to buy stuff at the grocery store and grow
| all their own food seem less and less nuts these days... :(
| kibwen wrote:
| Unless their soil contains lead, arsenic, cadmium, or mercury,
| which in a lot of places it does. Have your soil tested before
| planting a food garden.
| jstarfish wrote:
| Doubly so if you were ever warned that your property may
| contain unexploded ordnance.
|
| That sounds shocking, but is a red herring. Unexploded
| munitions are a malfunction-- being warned about it means
| someone _detonated_ a large amount of it in your area.
|
| Same goes for former/adjacent shooting ranges. Assume the
| soil is contaminated until tested.
| mcsniff wrote:
| In what world is insulting self-sufficient and independent
| people acceptable?
|
| "Ah, these people who live life a different way, less reliant
| on incompetent government and malicious businesses are crazy
| fringe conspiracy nuts".
|
| Millions of people grow their own food for a plethora of
| reasons, yeah maybe everybody should just be eating poison-
| laced big box food because they don't want to be labeled
| "nuts", only to be proven correct time and time again.
| infecto wrote:
| I know this is how they make money but I wish publications would
| make certain articles available with ads when they potentially
| have solid journalism bringing a story forward.
| infecto wrote:
| Unable to read the article, can anyone shed some light if this is
| related to the case in NC which IIRC was leading towards the
| seasoning added?
| gregwebs wrote:
| There can be lead in almost any man-made good or processed food.
| And even unprocessed food grown in contaminated soils.
|
| Lead is such a ubiquitous contamination that it is worth
| educating yourself about and getting baseline blood tests. This
| site has lots of useful information: https://tamararubin.com/ The
| author tests products with an XRF gun and her reports have
| initiated recalls. It's a commentary on our lack of enforcement
| and oversight that one individual could be the primary source of
| information about lead contamination for many. Unfortunately if a
| company can claim their product is not for use by children than
| it can't really get recalled and many of us are using dishware
| with lead in them and have unnecessary lead exposures.
| infecto wrote:
| While I agree generally, I would caution anyone to follow the
| woman linked above. She has started a handful of scares before
| that were false and she has a financial incentive to making
| these claims.
|
| Her use of her XRG equipment has come into question by lab
| professionals. The most recent example being the lead scare she
| started around kitchenaid mixers.
|
| I agree with the message though, everyone should become
| educated and be careful especially with children.
| klipklop wrote:
| This is why the US needs stronger rules about where food is
| coming from. If I had the choice between Ecuador and Washington
| state for applesauce I know which country I am picking from a
| food safety standpoint.
|
| Currently for most foods if they are processed in the US they can
| say it's a product of the US. For example meat from China
| processed in the US is sold as US meat. This means you can just
| repackage it, boom US product!
|
| The current rules put profit over consumers being informed where
| their food comes from.
| infecto wrote:
| While I also desire better controls in the chain, is what you
| describe accurate? When I purchase meat I always look and the
| country of origin is always noticeable.
|
| Now I typically only do this with seafood products but maybe I
| have been buying SA beef before.
| gnulinux wrote:
| It really depends, and it's not as simple as you imply. US rice
| for example has more arsenic than any other rice in the world
| because US soil has more arsenic in it and rice is an arsenic
| soaking crop. So, if you eat too much rice, you really should
| avoid US based rice, it contains unhealthy amount of arsenic.
| It seems like Thailand based rice has the least amount of
| arsenic in it but I think we need more comprehensive research
| on this.
|
| Sources
|
| [1] https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-
| muc...
|
| [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1892142/
|
| [3] https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/330866/thai-rice-has-
| lo...
| trebligdivad wrote:
| I'm confused; there's a huge difference between low level lead
| contamination generally and a HUGE contamination in this stuff.
| They're both bad of course; but something major has had to have
| happened somewhere along the way for this case to happen, and I'm
| a bit confused why there's not more panic generally happening
| about the cinnamon/spice supply chains.
| infecto wrote:
| I would guess not enough people know. As tragic as this is,
| hopefully this starts some change. It would be powerful to have
| a third party rating for QC around spices.
| infecto wrote:
| Posted too much here already but food supply issues concern me
| greatly.
|
| If anyone else is concerned, one of the quickest things you can
| do is throw out any of your spices from India and don't buy
| anymore in the future. Unclear the origin of this cinnamon but
| India has been a pretty consistent problem in recent history.
| android42 wrote:
| I recently read about the adulterated tumeric, but the problem
| is most things just say where they're packaged, not where the
| ingredients are from.
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(page generated 2023-12-10 23:01 UTC)