This letter was sent to Whole Foods Market Global Headquarters via email on Sunday, September 7, 2008.
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing you today to inform you that the FDA has recently released the results of an investigation into the presence of lead in women's and children's vitamins sold in stores across the United States. Of the 324 brands of vitaminns tested, 320 were found to contain lead. Although the FDA states that the levels of lead found are considered safe, I respectfully disagree. There is never a safe level of lead to give your child or to ingest while pregnant. Research shows that chronic lead exposure is silent but VERY dangerous - especially for toddlers, children and pregnant women.
It seems as though the FDA and Congress are not taking this issue seriously. I am also terribly disappointed that the vitamins I have been giving my children on a daily basis and the prenatal vitamins that I took while pregnant with my children were faithfully bought at Whole Foods(Yummi Bears and SuperNutrition Prenatal Vitamins). Therefore, I am asking you today to take matters into your own hands and develop lead free vitamins for your customers so that we can once again trust that what we buy at Whole Foods won't harm us or our children.
* To learn more about chronic lead exposure click HERE!
This email will also be posted as an open letter at www.RaisingCalifornia.blogspot.com. My readers and I will be waiting for a response. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Signed,
A disappointed but hopeful mother of two and Whole Foods customer for 9 years.
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3 comments:
This is a great letter L.A. Who would have thought they'd put lead in vitamins!? Guess that's one way to keep the big wigs in the health care industry thriving.
Mama Llama
If you read the study completely (and you can get a link to it on the Environmental Working Group site) you would seen that trace amounts of lead are naturally occuring in many calcium sources. You would also have noticed that most of the "natural" vitamins listed contained, in many cases, less than 1/10th of the amount that even the FDA acknowledges as a safe level of exposure. I think perhaps your anger is misdirected - Whole Foods may be big right now, but they are hardly responsible for lead existing in nature, and I'm sure you would't want to give your children a vitamin without any calcium. . .
Dear Anonymous,
First of all, I never said that I was angry...therefore my anger is not misdirected at all. I said I was disappointed and I am. Please do not put words in my mouth because that is not what I said.
Yes I know that the FDA says it is safe...I stated that in my blog: "Although the FDA states that the levels of lead found are considered safe, I respectfully disagree. There is never a safe level of lead to give your child or to ingest while pregnant. Research shows that chronic lead exposure is silent but VERY dangerous - especially for toddlers, children and pregnant women". If you would have read my blog, you would have seen that and also the fact that I am not blaming Whole Foods or anyone else for that matter...I am asking them to find a solution to the problem because I believe that they can. Here are my exact words: "I am asking you today to take matters into your own hands and develop lead free vitamins for your customers so that we can once again trust that what we buy at Whole Foods won't harm us or our children."
Furthermore, it wouldn't bother me at all for my children to take a vitamin without calcium. They get plenty of Calcium without a supplement every single day because I make sure that they eat healthy balanced meals that include plenty of milk, cheese, yogurt etc.
I visit the Environmental Working Group site frequently and have not found the information that you said existed there. Please provide the link. I have noticed that the EWG OFTEN questions the decisons made by the FDA though...and so do I.
In closing, I'd like to say that just because trace amounts of lead naturally occur doesn't mean we should be ingesting it. Multiply the trace amounts you are talking about by 365 days and then by 9(the number of years my oldest son has ingested lead through vitamins). Furthermore, I'd like to say that if we can filter our water and take lead, arsenic and other chemicals out, no one can make me believe that there isn't technology out there to make sure that our vitamins are safe as well.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Here is a link to what chronic lead exposure does to children and developing babies with information from the CDC and the EPA:
http://raisingcalifornia.blogspot.com/2008/08/fda-finds-lead-in-99-of-childrens-and.html
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