I have just read an article that appeared January 22nd, on NEWSMAX HEALTH.

I feel that it is important to spread this information because many home remedies from Latin American countries and India use incredibly high levels of lead in their preparation.
The CDC reported 12 cases of lead poisoning in 2004 from using ayurvedic remedies in Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and California.

High levels of lead have been found in ayurvedic medicines, which are used in India and in South Asian immigrant communities in New York, Chicago and Houston. These medicines include ghasard, a brown powder given to relieve constipation in babies, and mahayogaraj gugullu, for high blood pressure.

Lead poisoning can cause lethargy, confusion, learning problems and convulsions. Too much lead can cause irreversible brain damage and death.

The article stated:
“Traditional medicines may account for up to 30 percent of all childhood lead poisoning cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates 240,000 U.S. children were diagnosed with high blood lead levels in 2004 to 2006.”

“Mexican remedies such as greta, azarcon and rueda – powders that are given to treat constipation in children and contain as much as 90 percent lead. In New York City and Rhode Island, high lead levels in the blood have been tied to litargirio, a powder containing up to 79 percent lead. It is used by Dominican immigrants for such ills as foot fungus and body odor.”

“In Harris County, which includes Houston, traditional medicines are blamed for nearly one-fifth of all cases in which children were found to have high levels of lead. In Arizona, home remedies account for one-fourth of childhood lead poisoning cases.”

How many high lead level cases are not reported if the child doesn’t become ill enough for the parents to become aware that it is their home medication that is causing problems?
If there are minute traces of lead in paint on toys, I wondered when I wrote the previous article, how many toys that have minute traces of lead in their paint must a child eat to cause the levels of lead absorbed and detected?
My point is that before we make drastic and costly decisions we should not make assumptions. The scientific approach of ‘cause and effect’ seems to have been forgotten recently. Opinion and emotion seems to prevail over solid scientific fact.

Dr Spock came upon the scene with the best-selling book of all time other than the Bible, “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care”, in 1946.

This book became very popular in the 1960’s and in it he suggested that parents treat their children as individuals. His advice was contrary to how most parents raised their children throughout prior history but ‘progressive’ mothers jumped on the advice.

The book went through 7 editions, was published in 39 languages and sold over 50 million copies.

Mothers decided to stop disciplining their children and instead allowed them to ‘express themselves’. I’m certain that most of you who remember back that far saw the personal expression of screaming kids throwing groceries out of the shopping carts and dumping gum and candy out of the boxes at the sides of check-out lines.

Then, as a continuation of the system of self-expression, “Welcome Back Kotter” appeared on TV in 1975 and every teenage boy wanted to be Vinnie Barbarino. This characterization of how best to disrupt the American education system propelled John Travolta into stardom.

Interestingly, no one wanted to be Arnold Horshack.

In the series, Gabe Kaplan, as the teacher, was unable to control the group of students, The Sweathogs, who were determined not to be taught.

It was during this period that I personally experienced the results of the program when I was a substitute teacher. It took more effort to control the class than to present the subject matter. Kids learned a lot from “Welcome Back Kotter” and classrooms would never be the same.

Not long after that, in 1979, “The Dukes of Hazzard” appeared on TV. That was the period when my son started driving and a number of his friends died trying to duplicate the stunts as seen on the series. My son wrecked a couple of cars during that series but fortunately survived.

Today those children who were allowed to “express themselves”, who always got their way, are now on the highways. They still expect “their way” and if you happen to be in their way, they will attempt to push you aside. If the other person has always gotten his or her way, watch out, someone’s going to get hurt.

My conclusion: modern media is extremely powerful in influencing our lives—whether it is the written word or the visual presentation of TV programs or video games that kids play today.

We see toddlers in diapers on the beach playing in the sand which contains billions of small stones and shells but no one seems concerned that they are a choking threat. What about our pennies and dimes? Does this too require a US Government recall? There are all sorts of questions raised about specific holiday plants at this time of year and their toxicity but parents seem unconcerned about the house plants that are in the home all year or the outside plants where their children play. Why does it seem that is there no sensible way to deal with our everyday environment? Why do some parents initiate lawsuits because of a button that can be pulled from a doll yet are totally unconcerned about the pebbles in their child’s sandbox? I’m afraid this has nothing to do with protecting children but it has everything to do with greed and the possibility of financial gain from a lawsuit.

Can we believe that manufacturers have just recently started to use lead paint on toys or had they always done so.?

Think about this a bit.

I am quite certain that the hundreds of millions of us adults have played with toys with as much, and certainly more, lead in painted toys than exists today. All toys were painted before plastic was invented. Many toys themselves were made of lead. I, and all the boys I knew, played with lead soldiers and lead cars.

If one considers the technological, scientific, literary and art achievements that have been made in the last 70 years it is obvious that our minds have not been hampered by that lead.

We are only aware of its presence today because we are testing for it.

If a child becomes unruly in a classroom one of the first things that is suggested is testing for chemicals in the blood, specifically for lead. How about the rest of the children in that classroom? They may have as much or more lead in their bodies but they act ‘normally’ so they are not tested.

If one considers the extreme cases of the lead miners or the battery workers and how much exposure it takes to create biological problems and analyzes the duration of exposure and quantity of lead involved then a reasonable attitude might evolve.

We ingest a lot of unsavory material that really has little or no effect on us. If anyone were to look at a drop of water with a microscope from their favorite lake or river where they swim or boat they would never go into that water again.

We are comfortable with our food, water and objects that we handle as long as we don’t know the specifics.

We have out-performed and outlived our great grandparents who played with stones, and sand and unpainted wooden toys.

In spite of our sharp sticks, marbles, buttons, dangling strings and lead paint, we have lived long enough to become a burden to our Social Security System to an extent never anticipated by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In short, if you look hard enough for problems you will find them whether it’s toys, water, food or your neighbor.