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Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

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Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#71

Post by infinitifall »

I'm put off by how this is framed as a detective story. Pesticides that contain heavy metals and other carcinogens are a well known issue, with India (and South Asia more generally) being the worst affected.

> You'll never guess the culprit

Not knowing about turmeric comes off as deeply ignorant when a billion people consume it as part of their daily diet.

> They don't know that this is harmful for human health

Let me assure you that they absolutely do and they couldn't care less. This also makes it seem like poor clueless farmers are to blame while mega-corporations that process, package, market and distribute these spices are never given even a passing mention!

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#73

Post by [deleted] »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #45
crazygringo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to introduce a level of accountability... without the burden of regulation Why? What's wrong with regulation? The whole point of regulation is safety and accountability and fairness. Yes things can be over-regulated, but then the solution is to regulate properly, not over-regulate. The reason we don't have libertarian or anarchist societies is because they fundamentally can't solve the problems around safety, accou…

I wonder if we should think about getting rid of limited liability corporations? Hit the capitalist class where it hurts.

[deleted]

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#74

Post by shermantanktop »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #57

I think this NPR article is too quick to put a positive spin on this. They have made a nice little story here with a happy ending. Farmers had blackened turmeric -> they used a random yellow die they found -> massive lead spike in everyone's bloodstream -> Americans came in with a xray gun and saved the day -> no more lead in the blood. But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans i…

That's a BS detection step that I apply to anecdotes: who lacks agency in this story?

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#75

Post by missinglugnut »

perihelions wrote: post #55
OJFord wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you need to worry buying it from a store that's imported it properly - the article says it was found in the US in Bangladeshi communities where it had been brought back to the US in their suitcases. The difference could be due to sun-drying (I assume?) on your family's farm vs. industrial scale freeze/spray drying, for example. Or some (non-lead, non-colouring) additive that prevents it oxidising and du…

No, it's definitely in the US supermarket supply chain (though it's not nearly as bad as in SEA), https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/your-herb... ( "[Consumer Reports] tested 126 products from McCormick, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and other popular brands. Almost a third had heavy metal levels high enough to raise health concerns" ) You may (or not) be surprised that there's actually no general testin…

With the exception of one brand I hadn't heard of (La Flor), every turmeric tested was either safe or in the "some concern" category.

CR does a disservice by not sharing their test levels, but I'm willing to bet my own health that "some concern" is multiple orders of magnitude less lead than what this npr article is about.

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#76

Post by Amezarak »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #57

I think this NPR article is too quick to put a positive spin on this. They have made a nice little story here with a happy ending. Farmers had blackened turmeric -> they used a random yellow die they found -> massive lead spike in everyone's bloodstream -> Americans came in with a xray gun and saved the day -> no more lead in the blood. But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans i…

I don't think the NPR reporter is deliberately spinning the story. I think a lot of people don't really believe that other people are really different from them. The reporter would never knowingly poison people for money, so it's not comprehensible to them that lots of people in the world just don't care whether they do or not. The only reason in their minds that people would do such a thing are economic desperation combined with ignorance; if those two factors are gone, they really believe the problem has been forever solved.

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#77

Post by sorcerer-mar »

missinglugnut wrote: post #75
perihelions wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's definitely in the US supermarket supply chain (though it's not nearly as bad as in SEA), https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/your-herb... ( "[Consumer Reports] tested 126 products from McCormick, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and other popular brands. Almost a third had heavy metal levels high enough to raise health concerns" ) You may (or not) be surprised that there's actually no general testin…

With the exception of one brand I hadn't heard of (La Flor), every turmeric tested was either safe or in the "some concern" category. CR does a disservice by not sharing their test levels, but I'm willing to bet my own health that "some concern" is multiple orders of magnitude less lead than what this npr article is about.

The point is that this (and similar) problems are not categorically caught at the US border.

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#78

Post by mixmastamyk »

I put our "Ginger and Tumeric"[1] Tea from Trader Joe's into a glass as in Test 15 at: https://eatrightindia.gov.in/dart/#spices-condiments15

Unfortunately it looks halfway between the two pictures, although that might be from the Ginger, Orange, and other ingredients. :-/

[1] https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/organic-ginger-...

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#79

Post by crazygringo »

prairieroadent wrote: post #68
toast0 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of proper schooling allows one to detect lead in ground turmeric? I guess proper schooling would help one understand the analysis techniques, but the machines are pretty expensive and most people don't have one at home. Regulations that require food products to be regularly surveyed for heavy metals or other contaminants seem more effective than requiring every household to own and operate analysis machines…

if the population was thoroughly educated then I imagine most food would be bought direct from farmers with test published alongside the crop because the population understands the importance of unadulterated food and are armed with the ability to test their food cheaply... once relationships are established with farmers and food providers then the need to test becomes less frequent

I don't have any farmers within a fifty miles of me, I don't think. I live in a major city surrounded by suburbs.

And how exactly am I going to know the farmer's published tests are correct?

And there aren't cheap tests for everyone to test all their food for thousands of different possible contaminants. That's wishful thinking.

And why do you think testing would need to become less frequent when relationships are established? It's a tried-and-true business technique to gain a reputation of high quality, then rake in the big bucks by switching selling low-quality stuff that people are fooled by.

You can understand why it's about 100,000x more efficient for everyone to say, hey, why don't we hire actual experts and give them the expensive equipment people can't afford on their own to do all these tests for us, and levy huge fines when farmers and corporations adulterate their food or otherwise make it unsafe? And we can call the rules farmers and corporations have to follow "regulations".

I genuinely don't understand why you think it should be legal for farmers to add lead to turmeric and try to sell it, and then put the responsibility on the consumer to test. I mean, do you think it should be legal for people to murder each other, and put the responsibility on others to avoid getting murdered? And if not, then why do you think poisoning people with lead is any different?

Re: Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

#80

Post by Aloisius »

GloriousKoji wrote: post #58
oharapj wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone validate the water test for lead adulterated turmeric? https://youtu.be/tXWPf0HQd5U?si=-SkT4EQB9SvMx7io

I don't follow youtube links during work hours as a personal policy but an India government webpage outlines the water test for whole tumeric: https://eatrightindia.gov.in/dart/ > Test 14 : Detection of lead chromate in turmeric whole > Testing Method: > * Add small quantity of turmeric whole in a transparent glass of water. > * Pure turmeric will not leave any colour. > * Adulterated turmeric appears to be bright in…

That's for whole turmeric.
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