The fact that there needs to be a bill to stop companies from poisoning babies is just fucking depressing.
Ah, but they didn’t even say stop, they said limit…
🤦♂️
I think ‘limit’ is fine as long as that limit is under levels safe for infant consumption. It’s probably not possible to make baby food entirely free of heavy metals because they’re basically everywhere. But it is possible to make them with heavy metals under a specific safety threshold.
Getting to 100% in anything is really fucking hard - some shits occasionally going to go wrong and that’s unavoidable.
Fun fact there is no safe limit of lead to eat. It’s a forever metal so once it is in you it never leaves and will only continue to hurt you.
It’s a forever metal so once it is in you it never leaves and will only continue to hurt you.
Citation desired. All references I’m seeing explicitly state that lead is eventually excreted in urine and feces.
In bones, lead can take 25-30 years to leave the body. Actually, this is true of many types of heavy metal poisoning (and radiation, eg radium), and bone loss as we get older tends to release these compounds. This is part of why they believe there’s a delay with ALS and Alzheimers between when you ingest heavy metal and when you actually develop symptoms.
In older adults, the primary source of lead exposure can be endogenous. Excretion of lead is relatively slow, and accumulation is common [31]. During early and middle life, lead is sequestered in the bones, where it replaces calcium in the hydroxyapatite structure [32]. The skeleton contains 70–95% of the body burden of lead where lead can remain for decades [32], which can be exploited for exposure assessment research. Adults experiencing loss of bone mass via osteoporosis release lead into the bloodstream. In older adults, 40–70% of blood lead can be attributed to previous body stores [32]. Lead that entered the body during previous periods of high exposure can become biologically active decades later.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7454042/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161813X20301352
Well then it’s too bad we can’t possibly entirely remove lead from the food chain.
If we limited use of fossil fuel vehicles on farmland, that would help a lot. The exhaust from tractors along with the bits of tires left in fields etc all put heavy metals in our food supply. As it is, almost all farmland in the US needs bioremediation to reduce heavy metals in their soils.
What’s more depressing is that there have been 2,291 bills and amendments addressing ingredients in baby food since 1951. They range from limits on toxins to excessive additives and sugars. Most fail at introduction thanks to the lobbying power of Nestlé, who owns Gerber.
Business ethics require legislation in the US.
Hey, if baby consumers didn’t want heavy metals in their food they’d chose a competitor - the market has signaled that its in favor of poison. /s
Well tbf have the babies submitted a compelling case through the proper channels? Maybe they can peacefully assemble to make a difference… that’s how christians have won their battles
Nobody expects the Spanish
Inquisitionpeaceful Christian demonstration!
The free market should be free to choose how much heavy metals are in it.
Baby Formula! Now with 12% less Lead than the leading brand!
What about that one with 50% more lead, but you don’t mind trading a couple of your baby’s IQ points for those sweet savings?
Hmm that’s a tough trade-off. More developmental disabilities, but is the Value™ really there to justify the decreased cost?
If children wanted higher quality food they would go out and make their own money.
Mine are broke so they’ll eat what I feed them.
Tbh kids these days need to learn a thing or two about heavy metal
limit
Thanks so much.
TIL in the US they need an extra law to limit harmful substances in (baby) food. Normal people would call this “common sense”, but it seems to be rather uncommon in the US.
This is ridiculous! Now how are babies supposed to get their recommended daily value of lead and cadmium?
I don’t know, but if you take them to Russia and teach them to say “fuck Putin,” they’ll get their recommended daily dose of polonium.
I will not let them take my babies daily intake of arsenic and mercury away!
Without led in their system, how are we going to develop the next generation of psychopaths and right wing voters?
I am genuinely surprised that this isn’t already in place for all foods. We’ve known about the harm they cause for a very long time.
Limit implies they will still have some allowable amount which is insane!
Nestle:
Great. What are we going to do with them now?
I feed our baby junks of lead to go straight to the source. It’s working well.
