Archive for the ‘Foodborne Contaminants’ Category
It was easy enough to be dismissive when Dr. Oz was flogging the issue of arsenic in apple juice being purchased by U.S. consumers. However, the issue just doesn’t seem to be settling to the level of importance that it deserves, which, in the larger scheme of things environmentally-healthy-related, is not much. Thoughtful journalists and those not-so-thoughtful seem to feel compelled to make it grow unduly in an already overgrown media landscape. The proximate cause of this media attention is the current issue of Consumers’ Report, which by itself appears to be a reasonably insightful discussion – more on that later – through once again through the magicks of short attention spans and the news cycle, momentary uproar and alarm and another opportunity to be stupid about this issue have been created. Read the rest of this entry »
Mehmet Oz is a physician who’s made the most of the opportunities afforded him as a television celebrity. He supports complementary and alternative medicine, which draws in criticism from advocates for evidence-based medicine. Dr. Oz most recently emerged in the news with a “study” highlighting the health risks from arsenic in fruit juices, which given the size of his megaphone engendered nationwide controversy. The FDA took him to task over it, and I picked it up from reading PZ Myer’s blog. PZ does a public service drawing attention to the issue and in particular highlighting FDA’s opinion of Dr. Oz’s data, but didn’t convey anything about the nature of the risks, either significant or insignificant, about arsenic in apple juices. Deborah Blum has a great story about what real arsenic risks look like, depicting arsenism in Bangladesh including a brain-curdling picture of someone with an arsenic-related hyperkeratosis (a disabling thickening and roughening of the skin). She also takes Dr. Oz to task for doing bad risk assessment and bad risk communication. Read the rest of this entry »
Consumer’s Reports published a report on health risks associated with protein powders, including a discussion of the risks associated with heavy metal contaminants found in some brands of powders. I’ve commented previously on the shortcomings in their reporting of the risks from the heavy metal contaminants, which I predict will do more to alarm and confuse people than inform them.
However, far be it for me to simply criticize CR’s work without making the attempt to try and communicate health risk issues with heavy metals in protein powders more clearly. So, I’ll take a run at talking about cadmium, because I kind of ran arsenic into the ground with the last post (Note that an expanded version of this post, providing a more detailed discussion of cadmium risks from protein powders, can be found here).
Consumer’s Reports published a report on health risks associated with protein powders, including a discussion of the risks associated with heavy metal contaminants found in some brands of powders. I’ve commented previously on the shortcomings in their reporting of the risks from the heavy metal contaminants, which I predict will do more to alarm and confuse people than inform them (Note that a condensed version of this post without all of the geeky risk assessment talk can be found here).
However, far be it for me to simply criticize CR’s work without making the attempt to try and communicate health risk issues with heavy metals in protein powders more clearly. So, I’ll take a run at talking about cadmium, because I kind of ran arsenic into the ground with the last post.
Consumer Reports seems to have stirred up some controversy over protein powders and drinks. These are staples in the fitness world, and while they’re not intended to be a substitute for real food, they are a convenient way to get some protein into you before a workout.
CR’s article is a bit of a scattershot complaint about the nutritional benefits and health risks, much of which I’m not particularly disposed to address. However, CR drew my attention by informing its readers how. . .
“[s]ome protein drinks can even pose health risks, including exposure to potentially harmful heavy metals, if consumed frequently. All drinks in our tests had at least one sample containing one or more of the following contaminants: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. These metals can have toxic effects on several organs in the body.”
“Harmful.” “Contaminants.” ” Heavy metals.” “Toxic effects.” These are terms that I do not sling around with abandon. And, from my perspective, people who read CR’s report about protein powders, at least the portion that discusses health risks from heavy metal contamination, will come away alarmed, confused, no better educated about this topic than when they picked up the article, and with no roadmap about what kinds of decisions they should make about using protein powders.