3 ms·

There can be lead in almost any man-made good or processed food. And even unprocessed food grown in contaminated soils. Lead is such a ubiquitous contamination

There can be lead in almost any man-made good or processed food. And even unprocessed food grown in contaminated soils. Lead is such a ubiquitous contamination that it is worth educating yourself about and getting baseline blood tests. This site has lots of useful information: https://tamararubin.com/ https://tamararubin.com/ The author tests products with an XRF gun and her reports have initiated recalls. It's a commentary on our lack of enforcement and oversight that one individual could be the primary source of information about lead contamination for many. Unfortunately if a company can claim their product is not for use by children than it can't really get recalled and many of us are using dishware with lead in them and have unnecessary lead exposures.

infecto 3y ago
While I agree generally, I would caution anyone to follow the woman linked above. She has started a handful of scares before that were false and she has a financial incentive to making these claims. Her use of her XRG equipment has come into question by lab professionals. The most recent example being the lead scare she started around kitchenaid mixers. I agree with the message though, everyone should become educated and be careful especially with children.
- gregwebs 3y ago
  What’s wrong with her reporting on Kitchen Aid and what’s a better resource?
  - infecto 3y ago
    As far as anyone can tell there has been no additional proof beyond hers. I was quite concerned because I caught wind of it via a Reddit cooking subreddit and from what I could tell there was no contamination. Never a recall, KitchenAid never changed their tune. Some individuals had tested theirs, no issues. So at the end of the day who really knows. I am sure some of the things she tests is truthful but the problem is her testing does not have the greatest standards and the way she comes across seems manic. These sorts of things require rigorous testing and you can never be wrong. Sadly no other resources that I know of. These are the sorts of things that if not the government, a third party nonprofit type rating agency does. Her mom groups are filled with panicked and freaked out individuals which is not wha tit should be.
    - reducesuffering 3y ago
      "She has started a handful of scares" All she's doing is testing everything under the sun for lead amounts in common household items, while being certified to do so with her own XRF, and then writing about it so that others without XRF can know. Meanwhile, everyone else is busy drinking out of lead glazed mugs, touching leaded door handles 10 times a day, toddlers sucking in leaded toys, eating high lead chocolate. Then after 30 years they got a blood panel that says their lead levels are high, and probably have been for 30 years. People are woefully unaware how much lead still permeates soo much around us still, and she's one of the few bringing awareness to it.
      - noname10293 3y ago
        "Certified to do so with her own XRF"? What certification are you referring to here? Mere possession of a costly, sophisticated device poorly understood by most can hardly count. Does owner even understand what goes into calibrating an XRF?
        gregwebs 3y ago
        She calibrates before every test. She has probably done more XRF tests than anyone criticizing her, including those doing it by proxy in this thread. Here's a training certificate. It's an 8 hour full day course: https://tamararubin.com/2017/09/tamaras-xrf-training-certificate-february-3-2009/ https://tamararubin.com/2017/09/tamaras-xrf-training-certifi...
        infecto 3y ago
        Think your parent was overly harsh but your reply highlights why I don’t know what to think about her results. My point still stands, she may be finding actual items but her lack of easily digestible information and constant self promotion makes it hard to know if the results are real? I would ask again, what about the KitchenAid mixer scare? Was it real or not? She makes a large number of claims and it’s hard to understand how many were truly accurate.
Turing_Machine 3y ago
We really need a better word than "contaminated" here. "Contaminated" implies that the objectionable substance is there as the result of someone's bad behavior. Sometimes, of course, it is. But not always. There are a lot of places where the soil and/or groundwater has a lot of lead, arsenic, mercury, what have you, because that's just the way the geology is and always has been, even before humans existed.

infecto 3y ago

While I agree generally, I would caution anyone to follow the woman linked above. She has started a handful of scares before that were false and she has a financial incentive to making these claims. Her use of her XRG equipment has come into question by lab professionals. The most recent example being the lead scare she started around kitchenaid mixers. I agree with the message though, everyone should become educated and be careful especially with children.

gregwebs 3y ago
What’s wrong with her reporting on Kitchen Aid and what’s a better resource?
- infecto 3y ago
  As far as anyone can tell there has been no additional proof beyond hers. I was quite concerned because I caught wind of it via a Reddit cooking subreddit and from what I could tell there was no contamination. Never a recall, KitchenAid never changed their tune. Some individuals had tested theirs, no issues. So at the end of the day who really knows. I am sure some of the things she tests is truthful but the problem is her testing does not have the greatest standards and the way she comes across seems manic. These sorts of things require rigorous testing and you can never be wrong. Sadly no other resources that I know of. These are the sorts of things that if not the government, a third party nonprofit type rating agency does. Her mom groups are filled with panicked and freaked out individuals which is not wha tit should be.
  - reducesuffering 3y ago
    "She has started a handful of scares" All she's doing is testing everything under the sun for lead amounts in common household items, while being certified to do so with her own XRF, and then writing about it so that others without XRF can know. Meanwhile, everyone else is busy drinking out of lead glazed mugs, touching leaded door handles 10 times a day, toddlers sucking in leaded toys, eating high lead chocolate. Then after 30 years they got a blood panel that says their lead levels are high, and probably have been for 30 years. People are woefully unaware how much lead still permeates soo much around us still, and she's one of the few bringing awareness to it.
    - noname10293 3y ago
      "Certified to do so with her own XRF"? What certification are you referring to here? Mere possession of a costly, sophisticated device poorly understood by most can hardly count. Does owner even understand what goes into calibrating an XRF?
      - gregwebs 3y ago
        She calibrates before every test. She has probably done more XRF tests than anyone criticizing her, including those doing it by proxy in this thread. Here's a training certificate. It's an 8 hour full day course: https://tamararubin.com/2017/09/tamaras-xrf-training-certificate-february-3-2009/ https://tamararubin.com/2017/09/tamaras-xrf-training-certifi...
        infecto 3y ago
        Think your parent was overly harsh but your reply highlights why I don’t know what to think about her results. My point still stands, she may be finding actual items but her lack of easily digestible information and constant self promotion makes it hard to know if the results are real? I would ask again, what about the KitchenAid mixer scare? Was it real or not? She makes a large number of claims and it’s hard to understand how many were truly accurate.

Turing_Machine 3y ago

We really need a better word than "contaminated" here. "Contaminated" implies that the objectionable substance is there as the result of someone's bad behavior. Sometimes, of course, it is. But not always. There are a lot of places where the soil and/or groundwater has a lot of lead, arsenic, mercury, what have you, because that's just the way the geology is and always has been, even before humans existed.