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I was recently horrified to learn that the baby glass bottle I had been using with my baby had lead paint on it. https://tamararubin.com/2021/12/sailor-themed-g

I was recently horrified to learn that the baby glass bottle I had been using with my baby had lead paint on it. https://tamararubin.com/2021/12/sailor-themed-glass-nuk-baby-bottle-2021-bpa-free-and-only-15400-ppm-lead-in-the-paint-jk-90-ppm-lead-up-is-unsafe-for-kids/ https://tamararubin.com/2021/12/sailor-themed-glass-nuk-baby... Apparently, it's considered to be acceptable by current standards. Despite the fact that babies will obviously touch the bottle (and the paint) and then put their hands in their mouth. I bought glass bottles because I wanted to avoid plastic thinking it'd be safer and I was reassured by seeing that they were manufactured in Germany :( I think we still have very far to go in terms of toxic substance exposure.

zapataband1 5y ago
learned about teflon via the movie 'Dark Waters'... it was horrifying
fkfkno 5y ago
There's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#Possible_carcinogenicity_by_ingestion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#Possible_carc..., which is used in many glazes and coatings, but also as a whitener in health supplements and toothpaste!
- nsajko 5y ago
  Titanium dioxide is also widely used in cosmetics because it blocks ultraviolet light. Together with zinc oxide, it's the basis of sunscreen. As a pigment, titanium dioxide also seems like it's currently the go-to less toxic replacement for the lead-based pigments in lead paint.
  - sizzle 5y ago
    Is it absorbed through skin pores when we put on sunscreen??
    - alar44 5y ago
      No, and there is no reason to believe it's toxic if you read the Wikipedia article.
      - autoexec 5y ago
        > In 2021, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ruled that as a consequence of new understandings of nanoparticles, titanium dioxide could "no longer be considered safe as a food additive", Taken at face value that quote seems like reason enough to at least suspect that there's a possible problem. It also says that by the time they did that France had already banned it. The fact that a bunch of people evaluated evidence that gave them significant concern doesn't prove that they're right, but it is some reason to believe it's toxic... It's not a lot very strong thing to base that belief on, but it's something. Reading that alone I would try to avoid the stuff until I got the chance to look into what all that evidence was. That's assuming the article can be taken at face value. This is wikipedia after all. I did notice that there was a prominent statement right at the top of the "Health and Safety" section which says it "is regarded as "completely nontoxic". Maybe that is true, but the citation points to a source from 2006 while the EU decided to ban it 15 years later after "new understandings of nanoparticles".
        armitron 5y ago
        It's banned in every European country I've been. In the US, it's in pretty much every popular toothpaste one can find including all the big brands.
- boogies 5y ago
  Also in food; ice cream (eg. Tillamook White Chocolate Raspberry) and cereals (eg. Trader Joe’s fruity “Joe’s O’s” IIRC).
alar44 5y ago
Of course it's considered acceptable, lead doesn't just dissolve when you touch it and it's not like the paint is 100% lead. Our bodies are pretty resilient and you shouldn't be scared of super tiny trace things in the environment. Your baby probably receives much more lead exposure by breathing.
- whatshisface 5y ago
  Your body doesn't heal from lead exposure, it gets stuck in there until you die.
- nicolas_t 5y ago
  After 3 months of using that baby bottle before I stopped some of the paint flaked off. I'm guessing due to the fact that this bottle is regularly heated up which means it is an issue. If some paint flaked off that means potentially my baby ingested it. Lead bioaccumulates, it stays in your body until you die, there's no mechanism to remove lead. The scientific consensus is that there is no safe level of lead exposure. See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/ or even the CDC: "No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. " https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm So, yes, there are a lot of toxic things in the environment and I'm not concerned about most of them but lead is dangerous and has been proven to be. There is also no reason whatsoever for a company to use lead paint (which has been banned for constructions in the 70s) on a product meant to be used for children (a baby bottle).
- autoexec 5y ago
  > Of course it's considered acceptable, lead doesn't just dissolve when you touch it and it's not like the paint is 100% lead. The FDA didn't care about lead when it was being spooned directly to infant's mouths in the form of their baby food. The standards aren't what they are because of the amount of risk to people's health, or they would never have allowed it. I wouldn't assume something was safe just because it met FDA standards/recommendations.
kortilla 5y ago
Being afraid of things in acceptable doses is just as ignorant and unhelpful as not being afraid at all.
- nicolas_t 5y ago
  According to the CDC, "No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. ", so there's no acceptable dose of lead if it is ingested. Being sure that there's no issues without having done the research is just as ignorant as someone who panics without having done the research. If I'm concerned about something, you can be sure I will read everything to see if it is an actual issue or not. See: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/
autoexec 5y ago
> I was recently horrified to learn that the baby glass bottle I had been using with my baby had lead paint on it. I felt the same about the amount of arsenic, lead, and mercury, in baby food. Companies have gotten away with having dangerous amounts of them in the food they sell. It wasn't even limited to weird off brands but popular brands I probably ate myself as an infant like Gerber and Beech-Nut. I don't have much faith n the FDA at this point. I would have thought "No literal poison in baby food" would have been the standard, but turns out the FDA allowed dangerous amounts. A congressional report found that the FDA did nothing to limit the levels of dangerous metals in baby food, and that they appeared to be doing it "to be protective of industry". Now the FDA has said they'll do something about it, but even their plan is called "Closer to Zero" when what we need is an "Essentially zero poison in baby food" standard.

zapataband1 5y ago

learned about teflon via the movie 'Dark Waters'... it was horrifying

fkfkno 5y ago

There's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#Possible_carcinogenicity_by_ingestion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#Possible_carc..., which is used in many glazes and coatings, but also as a whitener in health supplements and toothpaste!

nsajko 5y ago
Titanium dioxide is also widely used in cosmetics because it blocks ultraviolet light. Together with zinc oxide, it's the basis of sunscreen. As a pigment, titanium dioxide also seems like it's currently the go-to less toxic replacement for the lead-based pigments in lead paint.
- sizzle 5y ago
  Is it absorbed through skin pores when we put on sunscreen??
  - alar44 5y ago
    No, and there is no reason to believe it's toxic if you read the Wikipedia article.
    - autoexec 5y ago
      > In 2021, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ruled that as a consequence of new understandings of nanoparticles, titanium dioxide could "no longer be considered safe as a food additive", Taken at face value that quote seems like reason enough to at least suspect that there's a possible problem. It also says that by the time they did that France had already banned it. The fact that a bunch of people evaluated evidence that gave them significant concern doesn't prove that they're right, but it is some reason to believe it's toxic... It's not a lot very strong thing to base that belief on, but it's something. Reading that alone I would try to avoid the stuff until I got the chance to look into what all that evidence was. That's assuming the article can be taken at face value. This is wikipedia after all. I did notice that there was a prominent statement right at the top of the "Health and Safety" section which says it "is regarded as "completely nontoxic". Maybe that is true, but the citation points to a source from 2006 while the EU decided to ban it 15 years later after "new understandings of nanoparticles".
      - armitron 5y ago
        It's banned in every European country I've been. In the US, it's in pretty much every popular toothpaste one can find including all the big brands.
boogies 5y ago
Also in food; ice cream (eg. Tillamook White Chocolate Raspberry) and cereals (eg. Trader Joe’s fruity “Joe’s O’s” IIRC).

alar44 5y ago

Of course it's considered acceptable, lead doesn't just dissolve when you touch it and it's not like the paint is 100% lead. Our bodies are pretty resilient and you shouldn't be scared of super tiny trace things in the environment. Your baby probably receives much more lead exposure by breathing.

whatshisface 5y ago
Your body doesn't heal from lead exposure, it gets stuck in there until you die.
nicolas_t 5y ago
After 3 months of using that baby bottle before I stopped some of the paint flaked off. I'm guessing due to the fact that this bottle is regularly heated up which means it is an issue. If some paint flaked off that means potentially my baby ingested it. Lead bioaccumulates, it stays in your body until you die, there's no mechanism to remove lead. The scientific consensus is that there is no safe level of lead exposure. See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/ or even the CDC: "No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. " https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm So, yes, there are a lot of toxic things in the environment and I'm not concerned about most of them but lead is dangerous and has been proven to be. There is also no reason whatsoever for a company to use lead paint (which has been banned for constructions in the 70s) on a product meant to be used for children (a baby bottle).
autoexec 5y ago
> Of course it's considered acceptable, lead doesn't just dissolve when you touch it and it's not like the paint is 100% lead. The FDA didn't care about lead when it was being spooned directly to infant's mouths in the form of their baby food. The standards aren't what they are because of the amount of risk to people's health, or they would never have allowed it. I wouldn't assume something was safe just because it met FDA standards/recommendations.

kortilla 5y ago

Being afraid of things in acceptable doses is just as ignorant and unhelpful as not being afraid at all.

nicolas_t 5y ago
According to the CDC, "No safe blood lead level in children has been identified. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. ", so there's no acceptable dose of lead if it is ingested. Being sure that there's no issues without having done the research is just as ignorant as someone who panics without having done the research. If I'm concerned about something, you can be sure I will read everything to see if it is an actual issue or not. See: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/default.htm https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837574/

autoexec 5y ago

> I was recently horrified to learn that the baby glass bottle I had been using with my baby had lead paint on it. I felt the same about the amount of arsenic, lead, and mercury, in baby food. Companies have gotten away with having dangerous amounts of them in the food they sell. It wasn't even limited to weird off brands but popular brands I probably ate myself as an infant like Gerber and Beech-Nut. I don't have much faith n the FDA at this point. I would have thought "No literal poison in baby food" would have been the standard, but turns out the FDA allowed dangerous amounts. A congressional report found that the FDA did nothing to limit the levels of dangerous metals in baby food, and that they appeared to be doing it "to be protective of industry". Now the FDA has said they'll do something about it, but even their plan is called "Closer to Zero" when what we need is an "Essentially zero poison in baby food" standard.