Lead in the Water

Via AlterNet: Is Your Faucet Making You Sick? Your drinking water may be contaminated with lead, even if you're using faucets claiming to be 'lead free.' Here's what we can do about it.

Federal Law Is not Entirely Protective

Under current federal law, the faucet that is labeled "lead free" can contain as much as four percent lead. In addition, federal law allows some small lead concentrations to leach out of your faucet and into the water you and your family drink. The typical household faucet manufactured over the last fifteen years can contain a quarter pound of lead! Older faucets manufactured before 1996 can contain double that amount. We know that a faucet containing so much lead is likely to leach lead into the drinking water used in our homes.

The existing laws rely on a standard that assumes a "small" amount of lead leaching from our faucets is safe. Since there are many ways that we can still be exposed to lead, we should be eliminating lead exposure wherever we can. Getting lead out of faucets is something we know can be done, and we cannot delay. [...]

Dangerous Levels of Lead in Our Plumbing

The EPA estimates that up to 20 percent of human lead exposure is the result of lead in our plumbing, including faucets. Public health departments in nearly every state across the nation and as well as the EPA all provide warnings on their web sites about the dangers from the lead that lurks in your plumbing.

They advise against using hot water directly from the tap for human consumption. This is because hot water causes more lead to leach out of plumbing. They also advise that you run the cold water tap for several minutes before drinking water from it. This is to help clear the water that has been collecting lead while it sits in the pipes.

No such warnings can be posted at the millions of drinking fountains located in schools across the country, where rampant violations of state and federal lead standards have been documented. [...]

Waking Up to the Dangers of Lead?

In September 2008 the EPA lowered the lead standard for air emissions based on their recognition of new medical studies demonstrating the dangers of exposure to lead at levels previously thought to be safe. These new medical studies make it clear that any exposure to lead, whether through air or water, is dangerous and demonstrate how important it is for our children's future health that we get the lead entirely out of our drinking water systems.

In 2006 California started a revolution to finally make our faucets safe by adopting a law that essentially eliminates lead from drinking water plumbing. Vermont and Maryland have already followed California's lead by passing similar laws. U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo has now introduced H.R. 5289 to get the lead out of all drinking water faucets and plumbing sold in the United States. Of course, the battle isn't won. The plumbing industry continues to resist, seeking amendments that would allow industry to bypass federal governmental regulation and continue manufacturing and selling unsafe

The U.S. Environmnetal Protection Agency (EPA) has a website with information about reducing lead in your drinking water. It confirms the methods listed above and also recommends cartridge type filtering devices. It is important that the filter is NSF certified which means there is a reduction in contaminants in the water, including lead.

Eating Organic/Not

— Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Kiera Butler at Mother Jones has an interesting article, "Which Veggie-Burgers Were Made With a Neurotoxin?" As Butler points out, a common found neurotoxin in many foods is hexane, an EPA-registered air pollutant.

The Cornucopia Institute, the food and agriculture nonprofit found that most non-organic veggie burgers currently on the market are made with the chemical hexane, an EPA-registered air pollutant and neurotoxin.

In order to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers, manufacturers of soy-based fake meat like to make their products have as little fat as possible. The cheapest way to do this is by submerging soybeans in a bath of hexane to extract the oil from the protein. Says Cornucopia Institute senior researcher Charlotte Vallaeys, "If a non-organic product contains a soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, or texturized vegetable protein, you can be pretty sure it was made using soy beans that were made with hexane."

If you've heard about hexane before, it was likely in the context of gasoline—the air pollutant is also a byproduct of gas refining. But in 2007, grain processors were responsible for two-thirds of our national hexane emissions. Hexane is hazardous in the factory, too: Workers who have been exposed to it have developed both skin and nervous system disorders. Troubling, then, that the FDA does not monitor or regulate hexane residue in foods. More worrisome still: According to the report, "Nearly every major ingredient in conventional soy-based infant formula is hexane extracted." The Cornucopia Institute found that a number of popular veggie burgers were made with hexane. The list (pdf, at page 37) is longer than you might think.

VEGGIE BURGERS AND HEXANE USE

NO HEXANE-EXTRACTED SOY INGREDIENTS USED

Boca Burgers “Made with organic soy”
Helen’s Kitchen
Morningstar “Made with organic”
Superburgers by Turtle Island
Tofurky
Wildwood

HEXANE-EXTRACTED SOY INGREDIENTS USED

Amy’s Kitchen
Boca Burger, conventional
Franklin Farms
Garden Burger
It’s All Good
Lightlife
Morningstar Farms
President’s Choice
Soy Boy
Taste Above
Trader Joe’s
Yves Veggie Cuisine

Products listed as 'Hexane-Extracted' use non-organic soy protein. Our research suggests that these soy protein ingredients were extracted with the use of hexane, a neurotoxic chemical solvent that is prohibited in organic food processing. We strongly urge the companies that manufacture these products to switch to non-hexane extracted soy products.

Also worth noting: Products labeled "organic" aren't allowed to contain any hexane-derived products, but that rule doesn't apply to foods that are labeled "made with organic ingredients." For more on soy sourcing, plus a list of popular "made with organic ingredients"-labeled protein bars that are made with hexane, read the Cornucopia Institute's study, "Behind the Bean."

The Cornucopia Institute study also lists Nutrition Bars and Infant Formula made with Hexane. The report found only one infant formula acceptable. (pdf, at page 38 -42)

Nature’s One’s Baby’s Only Organic is marketed as a “toddler formula,” but it is formulated to meet the nutritional requirements mandated by law for infant formulas. It is the only organic baby formula on the market that does not contain Martek’s hexane-extracted algal DHA and fungal ARA oils. Nature’s One also opts to source only organic ingredients when available, therefore the soy lecithin is organic and processed without the use of hexane.'

'Organic' is the word to look for. 'Made with organic ingredients' does not insure a pure organic product. Read the report and be diligent.