The Center for Science in the Public Interest is urging the Food and Drug Administration to prioritize public health, not industry’s interests, when setting standards for heavy metal contamination in foods and beverages consumed by infants and young children.
In comments submitted yesterday on FDA’s Closer to Zero action plan, CSPI criticized FDA for taking an inadequately protective approach to setting action levels for lead in juice in the action plan. Closer to Zero, which the agency launched last year in response to two congressional reports finding that baby foods sold in the U.S. are sometimes contaminated with toxic heavy metals, like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury.
Some beauty products contain harmful chemicals. For example, some skin-lightening creams may contain mercury, which can damage the nervous system and kidneys. “Our study found dozens of hormone disruptors, including some that have been banned in the EU, in many hair products used by Black women,” says Robin Dodson, a scientist at the Silent Spring Institute.
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with estrogen, testosterone, thyroid hormone, insulin, or other hormones. At very low levels, they can turn on, shut off, or alter the signals that the hormones send throughout our bodies. And that can spell trouble.
In 2002, Swedish scientists made a stunning discovery. Lab tests found acrylamide—a chemical known to cause cancer in animals— in a variety of popular foods, from bread to french fries.
Acrylamide typically forms in foods when a naturally occurring amino acid (asparagine) combines with (natural or added) sugars at high temperatures.
Does acrylamide cause cancer in humans? So far, studies in people haven’t found a clear link.
Lead-poisoned drinking water in Flint, Michigan shocked the nation, is likely to lower the IQs of thousands of the city’s children, and will cost taxpayers nationwide hundreds of millions of dollars. But our problems with drinking water aren’t limited to lead or to Flint. What should you be paying attention to in the water where you live?
