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Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

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Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#151

Post by mjan22640 »

hinkley wrote: post #48
sidewndr46 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of how scurvy was apparently well known in the age of sail but sort of forgotten with the industrial revolution. It showed back up again in Arctic expeditions from what I understand.

I don't recall where the the Arctic expeditions slot into this saga, but for ages we understood the lemon link but we hadn't identified Vitamin C yet. So there was a moment in time where the British Royal Navy was carrying around concentrated lime juice to fight scurvy (hence, Limey). Only the vendor that made the lime juice processed it in copper vessels, destroying most of the vitamin C. It doesn't take much vitami…

IIRC the arctic expeditions found it to be 10mg a day

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#152

Post by concordDance »

Eisenstein wrote: post #131
worthless-trash wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can assume someones internal views by use of word, especially such a term with a complex history that means different things to different people. The way you present it seems to have more problems than the 'not care' use case.

You can debate all you want the merits of it. I am stating a fact.

Some people will assume X and some will assume Y and the majority won't bother to assume anything.

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#153

Post by [deleted] »

hammock wrote: post #82
valarauko wrote: post #19

I'm a little surprised at the initial confusion about the source of lead, or perhaps it's the way the article has been written. As someone who grew up in India, our school textbooks in the 90s had a list of common food adulterants, and turmeric adulteration with lead chromate was common knowledge to middle schoolers. I recall the curriculum included how to detect adulteration with simple at home tests. After turmeric…

How can I test for lead in my tumeric? Edit: found this page which is amazing https://eatrightindia.gov.in/dart/

[deleted]

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#154

Post by jaggederest »

Inhibit wrote: post #133
hackerlight wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's described as a test for "artificial colour"

The lead is used to adulterate the product for color if I'm recalling correctly.

Lead chromate is an incredibly vivid yellow. Good color, bad health effects, as we learned from years of lead paint.

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#155

Post by concordDance »

brabel wrote: post #146
kazinator wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not real knowledge until some white person from a prestigious foreign university visits and works it into their Ph. D. thesis.

One would think that they could've solved the mystery easily without such white woman if everyone knew about that, but apparently one would be wrong. Generations of people poisoned by this practice and everyone was just fine with it?

Don't take an article like this at face value, they will omit any complicating or narrative disruptive facts and will often mislead with regards to cause and effect or timing (via omission or phrase juxtaposition).

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#156

Post by worthless-trash »

Eisenstein wrote: post #131
worthless-trash wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can assume someones internal views by use of word, especially such a term with a complex history that means different things to different people. The way you present it seems to have more problems than the 'not care' use case.

You can debate all you want the merits of it. I am stating a fact.

I wasn't debating.

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#157

Post by smcin »

sbierwagen wrote: post #134
princevegeta89 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, I never knew there was a Wikipedia article for this slang acronym that we use all the time.

Wikipedia has been backfilling slang terms lately, in competition with urbandictionary and knowyourmeme. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheugy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_boomer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%2BRatio etc

Hopefully only the legit subset of urbandictionary.

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#158

Post by lynx23 »

Eisenstein wrote: post #148
lynx23 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you agree that 'woke' is a loaded word? Do you agree that by using that word in that way it signals a certain type of political/ideological viewpoint? Do you agree that if someone did not want to signal that viewpoint it they should know?

No, No, and No. Simply because I dont agree with language police, as a principle.

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#159

Post by IggleSniggle »

victor106 wrote: post #98
sidewndr46 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an ABCD?

[flagged]

Whether or not something is offensive almost always depends on context. Knowing your context requires careful listening and respect for those around you. This is true regardless of whether or not you use one particular term or not.

If you do not intend to be respectful, then was there ever any issue in the first place? Your disrespect will be conveyed regardless.

If you do intend to be respectful, then you will know if using it is offensive or not in your given context.

Re: Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

#160

Post by autoexec »

jorvi wrote: post #104
perihelions wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- "E.g., if I buy turmeric from Walmart or Whole Foods, can I safely assume that they're monitoring the product streams for lead?" You can safely assume absolutely nothing. https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/your-herb... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29375003 ( "Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead (consumerreports.org)" ) (2021) - "The lack of regulation leaves much of the…

I don’t understand. If someone gets lead poisoning from regularly using a spiked batch of theirs, can’t they sue the everlasting piss out of these companies?

It'd be impossible to prove that the poisoning was from the lead in any one manufacturers food. Lead contaminates everything around us. Americans have been spoon feeding lead and other heavy metals directly into the mouths of their infant children for ages (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/baby-food-toxins-government-rep...). Only recently has the FDA even come up with non-binding guidelines on how much poison companies can put into baby food.

The harm is cumulative, and so singling out any single company or product as the one who put you over the "tipping point" to some set of symptoms is next to impossible and any corporation you tried to take to court would likely have a team of high paid lawyers so good luck convincing a carefully selected jury.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be able to sue companies into the ground for mass poisonings, but even when we can prove a company poisoned us, AND can prove that they knew they were doing it, AND even when we can prove they tried to cover that fact up so they could make more money by doing it, companies haven't ever faced meaningful consequences. Not the tobacco industry, not DuPont, certainly not spice manufacturers.

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