Deficiencies in calcium, iron and zinc are linked to increased lead absorption. Antioxidants Vitamin E and C make the body better at removing toxins such as lead. Its ironic that as many of us health conscious adults make vitamin supplements a part of our daily regimen, some multi-vitamins are found to contain lead.
Our first assumption is that this news is limited to some obscure, cheap brand of vitamin from an unregulated country; something we’d never risk buying anyway. This is actually not the case. The vitamins tested included many top name brands. But perhaps what is most startling about this finding is that California is the only state that regulates lead in health supplements!
The US FDA actually tested 324 multi-vitamins, all products targeted for infants, children, women, and pregnant women. Not only did the products frequently not live up to their labels about what they claimed their vitamins were supposed to contain, 99 % of the samples tested contained traces of lead.
Lead author and activist, Dr. Sandra Cottingham challenges the FDA’s position that these trace levels are considered “tolerable intake levels”. She directs us to the growing body of research that shows that there is no safe level of exposure, especially for unborn babies
and children under the age of two.
Cottingham explains that the accumulation of lead in a woman’s body, over years of exposure to low-level exposure from a variety of sources, collects in her bones and tissue.
During pregnancy, that lead is released and crosses the placenta where it causes permanent damage to the developing fetal brain. Her new book, “Lead Babies” is about breaking the cycle of damage caused by lead; damage we know as learning disabilities, ADHD, low IQ, and behavior disorders. Cottingham and co-author, Joanna Cerazy, present research that even explains the role that in-utero and early exposure to lead plays in causing autism.
“The impact of learning and behavior problems is real. We simply can’t afford to disregard the cost to human potential and quality of life, nor the massive financial price tag that goes with it by telling consumers that there are tolerable intake levels of substances like lead,” she insists. “Its just common sense that a tiny amount of lead taken in every day for 5 years is going to become a significant amount that can do tremendous damage.” If you don’t believe the damage is real, or that lead is potentially a threat to your family, Cottingham invites you to read “Lead Babies”.
But is swearing off vitamins the answer? Of course not, she maintains. But by becoming a lead-savvy, informed consumer, you can take things into your own hands. Check out the FDA’s vitamin survey results (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~
Cottingham also points out that vitamins are merely the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to products that expose us to levels of lead that erroneously have been deemed “tolerable”
The full title of Dr. Cottingham's book is:
Lead Babies,
Breaking the Cycle of Learning Disabilities, Declining IQ, ADHD,
Behavior Problems, and Autism
Joanna Cerazy, MEd (Author), Sandra Cottingham, PhD (Author)
(http://www.nomoreleadbabies.com)
This groundbreaking study reveals the continuing danger that lead contamination presents to health—particularly in the earliest stages of life. Disclosure about the lead content in house paint, gasoline, canned food, and tap water revolutionized the manufacturing of those products a generation ago, but lead-based products are still produced and pose a health hazard as lead remains in the environment years after its initial use. The deleterious effects of lead on early cognitive development are well documented, but the data in this reference regarding in utero lead transfer contains critical new information that shows the effects on infants and families. Week-by-week brain development in unborn and newborn children is demonstrated, explaining lead’s damage potential at each stage and how that household sources and surroundings—
Authors:
Joanna Cerazy, MEd, is a special education consultant and has taught both regular and special education classes in primary, elementary, and secondary schools. Sandra Cottingham, PhD, is a special education consultant with 20 years of classroom experience. She has been an instructor in the Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia and is an Associate of the Taos Institute. They both live in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Lead Babies:
Children’s, Parenting & Family Care, Health
256 pages, Cloth, 5.5 x 8.5
Kunati Books
$24.95 (CAN $25.95)
9781601641922
(1601641923)
Joanna Cerazy M.Ed. and Sandra Cottingham Ph.D. are authors and researchers in the field of special education.
