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Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh

stanmed.stanford.edu

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

#91

Post by zajio1am »

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…

> actually the next suspect should be red chillis, adulterated with lead oxide.

Why would anyone adulterated red chillis with lead oxide instead of perfectly safe iron oxide, common food colorant?

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

#92

Post by wolpoli »

bakul wrote: post #39

They could have just asked.... Most who grew up in the subcontinent know this.

So they leveraged the Stanford name and got the government to pay attention and take actions. That's great for the people in Bangladesh but still, it's not groundbreaking research that they made it out to be.

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

#93

Post by bastawhiz »

zajio1am wrote: post #91
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…

> actually the next suspect should be red chillis, adulterated with lead oxide. Why would anyone adulterated red chillis with lead oxide instead of perfectly safe iron oxide, common food colorant?

I don't know for sure, but I'd suspect it's the flavor: iron oxide tastes metallic, lead oxide tastes somewhat sweet. That's partially why you hear about kids eating lead paint chips and not bits of rust.

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

#94

Post by mkoubaa »

itsoktocry wrote: post #83
Tozen wrote: post #74

People and companies knowingly contaminating food products with poisons like lead, should be put in jail. Companies knowingly selling such products, should be at least heavily fined, possibly prosecuted as well. Bottom line, this is clearly poisoning (and killing people) to make a few extra bucks. There should be no leniency whatsoever for this clear evil.

> There should be no leniency whatsoever for this clear evil. Normally I'd call this sort of language hyperbolic, but in this case I'm not sure it is. You know people are consuming this product. Literally poisoning people to save a few dollars? It's inexplicable.

Jail is too lenient, this is the sort of offence where I want to see heads on spikes

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

#95

Post by yumraj »

Powdered turmeric can be bright yellow, if the roots are boiled before drying and grinding, or dark/dirty yellow if not boiled since natural color of turmeric is dirty yellow.

Costco/Kirkland powered turmeric[0] is one of the rare ones that is dirty yellow, so we generally get that in the hope that it is lead free.

[0] https://www.costco.com/kirkland-signature-ground-turmeric,-1...

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

#96

Post by testfoobar »

natdempk wrote: post #3

See also "Ground Turmeric as a Source of Lead Exposure in the United States": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5415259/ The problem with lead in tumeric seems to extend beyond Bangladesh.

A few more:

"Lead in Spices, Herbal Remedies, and Ceremonial Powders Sampled from Home Investigations for Children with Elevated Blood Lead Levels — North Carolina, 2011–2018": https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6746a2.htm

"Analysis of Lead in Spices Obtained from Bulk Food Stores" (PDF): http://libjournals.unca.edu/ncur/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/...

"Heavy Metals in Cultural Products": https://www.epa.gov/children/heavy-metals-cultural-products

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

#97

Post by slumberlust »

bee_rider wrote: post #23
CoastalCoder wrote: post #5

Interesting article. One thing I'm left wondering though is: for the offending vendors, how aware were they of the potential harm they were causing? IMHO the punishment should, in some sense, scale with that detail. As a parent, if I found out that someone was knowingly poisoning my children for profit, I'd have some very uncharitable urges.

Maybe to some extent it should scale with that detail. However, to some extent everyone in the food processing chain has a responsibility to be diligent and competent, right? If we let people off the hook for not knowing the quality of their suppliers, and finding out is expensive, then we’re applying a filter in favor of incompetence.

This behavior is pervasive across all industry. If profit is the sole motivator, public opinion or insubstantial fines are not enough of a deterrent.

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

#98

Post by victor106 »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #30
akavi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an ABCD, likewise. My mom told me to specifically buy turmeric at western grocery stores (as opposed to other spices, which could be had for better prices at Indian grocery stores) because of concerns around lead.

What is an ABCD?

[flagged]

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

#99

Post by ajmurmann »

mkoubaa wrote: post #94
itsoktocry wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be no leniency whatsoever for this clear evil. Normally I'd call this sort of language hyperbolic, but in this case I'm not sure it is. You know people are consuming this product. Literally poisoning people to save a few dollars? It's inexplicable.

Jail is too lenient, this is the sort of offence where I want to see heads on spikes

This sounds extreme, but someone is destroying the health of and potentially killing thousands of people to safe a small amount of money. It's hard to think of a worse crime. I wonder if this is similar to the old adage that one death is a tragedy and a thousand are a statistic. If someone violently kills a single person and we learn all the details, in some places they'll face capital punishment. You low-key poison thousands of people and jail is suddenly controversial.

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

#100

Post by Eisenstein »

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

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an ABCD?

[flagged]

'Woke' is a very loaded word. A heads up that if you use it in the way you just did, people will assume certain things about you. Unless you don't care, in which case continue so that everyone knows what assumption they should make.
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