In The News:

Last month there were three articles in newspapers concerning metals in the environment.

- The first article describes how each time you apply the brakes you contribute to endangering marine life. How? Well there is copper in brake pads protecting them from overheating and each time you brake copper becomes airborne, then settles on the street to be washed away by rain ending up in water ways and in the ocean, where it contributes to endanger fish life.

- The second article talks about the death of many children in Nigeria by lead poisoning from illegal gold ore carrying high concentrations of lead.

- A third article warns about the presence of lead in Chinese herbs.

With the media focusing on the health effects of toxic metals, it should not come as a surprise
that someone would question the presence of heavy metals in supplements.

HOWEVER, the question is not if lead, arsenic and mercury are present, because
lead, arsenic and mercury, like other minerals are everywhere in nature.
The question is rather how much is present.

To verify if their supplements contain dangerous levels of lead, arsenic or mercury we have investigated two products of the company Youngevity, Plant Derived Minerals and Tangy Tangerine.

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Lead :

Although lead is a natural component of the soil, human activity has increased the soil levels of lead. Lead has been mined for more than 2,000 years, distributed into the air, into the soil and taken up by plants.
Lead is trace amounts may well. sooner or later. become an essential mineral.
It is also worth mentioning that a recent FDA survey supports low lead levels in supplements.
Read more about Lead at the Longevity Institute website by entering “lead” in the search box.

Table one presents the lead content of Plant Derived Minerals and Tangy Tangerine compared to the Non-Observed-Adverse-Effect-Level (NOAEL) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The NOAEL denotes the level of exposure of an organism, found by experiment or observation, at which there is no biologically or statistically significant (e.g. alteration of morphology, functional capacity, growth, development or life span) increase in the frequency or severity of any adverse effects in the exposed population when compared to its appropriate control. The EPA is a well-recognized unbiased source of information.

Table 1 – Comparison of the lead content of one serving with the Non-Observed-Adverse-
Effect level (NOAEL) for lead intake by human of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

There is actualy much interest for the state of California proposition 65 limiting the accepted level of heavymetals and other toxic substances in food.
Lead was about the first chemicals listed in 1987.
The FDA had set the limit for lead in one serving of any product to .6 micrograms. Prop 65 lowered the limit to .5 micrograms per serving. A non-for-profit organization Environmemtal Law Foundation has started an action to enforce prop 65.

See a list of food actually available in California that exceed the prop 65 limit.

Table 2 compares the lead content of Plant Derived Minerals and Tangy Tangerine with the strict limits imposed by prop 65.
It appears the two products comply with the law and by a serious safety margin.

Table 2 – Comparison of the lead content of one serving of PDM and TT with the California proposition 65
limit for the lead content of food.

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Arsenic

Arsenic (As) is an essential element, crucial for general growth and for the maintenance of fibrous tissue. As shares with selenium (Se) the particularity to be an essential element, beneficial at low concentration and toxic above a certain level.

Table three present the arsenic content of some foods. To make the comparison with one serving of Plant Derived Minerals (PDM) easier, the content in arsenic of each food is calculated per 30 grams edible portion. The food data is from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Table 3 – Comparison of the arsenic content of one serving of Plant Derived Minerals (one fluid ounce,
30 cc) with the content of arsenic in some popular foods.