America’s Babies Are Being Fed Toxic Metals: It’s Time to Get Mad As Hell – This is the first in a Special Series of articles about solving one of the greatest yet least detected and least regulated threats to our health.
The FDA has failed parents in its promise to fix one of the leading health threats to America’s babies – high levels of toxic metals in their food. It’s time for parents to get mad as hell and not take it anymore, by doing some simple things at home, and voting with their pocketbooks at the supermarket.
Lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic occur naturally in soil, water, and airborne dust. They add functionality to products, but serve no useful purpose in our bodies. Instead, they provoke DNA mutations, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, brain damage, and oxidative stress. They affect babies more severely than adults.
While we can’t escape these metals entirely, we can protect our kids from metal-tainted baby food. This is proven by baby food makers whose products are certified to be heavy metal-free. The private label certifications that they use don’t rely on government testing or regulation. Here’s why this is more important than ever:
In 2023, studies by watchdog groups and health associations showed that the heavy metals threat to children is bigger than estimated previously.
- The U.S. Society for Risk Analysis reported that contamination is widespread across the food chain, and that children under the age of 5, who are most susceptible to the impacts, are also the most highly exposed.
- Tests by Consumer Reports, and Bloomberg Law each reported high levels of cadmium, lead, and arsenic in popular baby foods, as well as snacks and protein drinks consumed by children and adults.
- The conservative American Heart Association (AHA) moved the goal posts way up the field when it became the first leading health authority to declare that low concentrations of these metals in humans “are responsible for a major portion of cardiovascular disease”. The AHA observed that while standard medical testing deems those levels as safe, this is actually not true. Instead, everyone is exposed to harmful low concentrations in everyday life.
- Many healthcare providers are missing the boat on this. Medical lab tests for heavy metals are usually done only if healthcare providers suspect metal poisoning caused by high concentrations in the blood – which are rare. The far lower levels described by the AHA are not tested for, so they trigger other health problems as they accumulate in the body.
- AHA experts concluded, “the implications for clinical practice and policies of the evidence on toxic metals and cardiovascular disease are potentially profound”.
While some experts say that exposure to metals in individual foods won’t harm kids, they often overlook multiple exposures that concentrate metals in the body. Nor can we rely on standard healthcare providers to warn us, because they usually don’t test.
Despite all of this, the government fails to act. The FDA has few if any legal limits on toxic metals in baby food. It provides “action levels” as guidance, but after years of promising strict limits, those haven’t happened. An FDA website shows final actions levels on its Closer to Zero plan for environmental contaminants in food as “No update”.
One result: in 2023 babies across 42 states showed symptoms of lead poisoning after being fed foods laced with the metal. The FDA only acted on this after reports of poisoning surfaced, because manufacturers aren’t required to test for metals in baby food themselves. In Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike demanded concrete action. Irate parents of affected kids are suing.
The message is clear: instead of relying on governments, we each have to be diligent. Here’s how:
- Start pushing healthcare providers to tell us about tests and treatments for these metals, and check recent science about what works and what doesn’t. Don’t rely on years-old common wisdom that prematurely dismisses some of these methods based on outdated information. Sections of the American Heart Association Statement on monitoring and interventions is a good place to start for up-to-date information.
- Use advice from the American Academy of Pediatricians and other children’s health websites on how to minimize heavy metal intake from food. The AAP also points to other metals sources to avoid, including smoke from wildfires. There are steps we can take to reduce exposure.
- Use new data to select baby foods. A new California law requires baby food makers to test monthly for lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury, then post results publicly by 2025. The law prohibits the sale of products that exceed even FDA non-binding tolerance limits. Meanwhile, you can read reports from independent watchdog organizations such as Society for Risk Assessment, Consumer Reports, and the National Sanitation Foundation, to learn which brands have high, low, or no heavy metals.
- Don’t smoke. Cigarette smoke contains high levels of toxic metals from tobacco and additives. Many cannabis and vaping products that are inhaled also contain such metals.
- Wash fresh produce before preparing. Use water passed through a filter that’s certified to remove the metals.
- Write your member of Congress and demand that the FDA set mandatory limits for heavy metals in food.
- If you belong to a parenting organization, ask them what their policy is on heavy metals and children, and get them to pressure the FDA to act.
Government regulation hasn’t worked – we need to use reliable certifications to vote with our pocketbooks and buy the right foods, then let the marketplace reward winners. We need to take action at home. And we need to push our healthcare providers to face up to the issue and start screening moms and kids for low levels of heavy metals.
It’s time for each of us to act.
About the author: Douglas Mulhall’s latest book Discovering the Nature of Longevity: Restoring the heart and body by targeting hidden stress, explores prevention and therapies for heavy metals contamination. It is recommended by the American Institute of Stress and carries a Foreword by the Chief author of the American Heart Association statement on toxic heavy metals. He co-develops award-winning certifications and standards for products globally and is a registered ISO expert on a global standard for declaring the contents of products.
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