For anyone who was wondering, here's what the vitamin industry - or at least Rainbow Light - has to say. Contact info is at the end of the email.
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Hello Ivy,
Thank you for your email. Here is an updated statement about the FDA
studies. Please do not hesitate to email us with anymore questions or
concerns you may have.
Update on Lead August 29, 2008
Rainbow Light regularly conducts tests on our products to ascertain that
any naturally occurring lead levels are within the legal limitations.
Rainbow Light uses botanical materials with the lowest detectable lead
level available on the market. Using strict testing methods, and after
allowable exclusions for naturally occurring lead, as described in
detail below, Rainbow Light products have all been found to be below
the No Observed Effect Level (safety level), and well within safety
limits for health.
In early 2007, FDA became aware of reports of elevated lead levels in
certain vitamins, which became an issue of concern to FDA, Congress, and
the public. A survey was conducted to determine the content of lead (Pb)
in vitamins labeled for women and children and results were subsequently
published in Journal of Agricultural and Food chemistry in July 2008 and
on the FDA website in August 2008. Because the results were overall
quite good, there has been little media coverage on this survey. None of
the levels ended up exceeding FDA's PTTI (provisional total tolerable
intake levels) for lead; the highest came out to less than half that.
Some products listed did not appear to meet the Prop65 standard which
might be a concern for labeling in CA, but is nowhere close to a public
health concern.
The FDA has estimated that the safe daily intake of "lead" from all
sources is 750 mcg for most adults, and 250 mcg for pregnant women. This means that most adults can be exposed to 750 mcg of lead per day, and no harm would be expected. However, the state of California's Proposiion 65, the most stringent law on this topic, has established a lower No Observed Effect Level (safety level) of 500 mcg of lead per day.
Further, California's Prop 65 imposes an extremely low limit of .5 mcg
per day (one-thousandth of the 500 mcg No Observed Effect Level) as a
per serving limit for food and dietary supplement products.
"Lead" is a naturally occurring mineral, found in the water, soil, air,
as well as many everyday foods and botanicals. Because there is a range
of naturally occurring lead levels found in our foods, allowances are
made for these separate from the strict California legal limits set
above. For example, the USP acceptable level of naturally occurring lead
in a daily serving of calcium is 4.5 mcg. An FDA analysis also
acknowledges food products like fresh spinach with 2.4 mcg of lead per
serving, canned spinach with 8.5 mcg per serving, and a glass of wine
with about 7.7 mcg of lead.
Manufacturers of dietary supplements are allowed to exclude naturally
occurring lead amounts from the above stated legal limits of Prop 65.
The amount of lead that can be excluded depends on the type of consumer
product. There is a precedent California Court Case (2005, Case No.
CGC-04-429563) that defines the naturally occurring lead limits for a
wide range of botanical sources. The naturally occurring allowance for
lead in the botanical products subject to the litigation was set at 3.5
mcg per daily serving. This means that, under the terms of the final
consent agreement, a botanical dietary supplement product could
conceivably have a lead content level of 3.5 mcg, plus the legal
allowance of .5, for a total of 4 mcg per daily serving, and still not
require a warning statement on the label in the state of California.
Always check with a health care professional before taking vitamin
supplements.
Sincerely,
Nancy David
Customer Service
Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems
[email protected]
Phone: (800) 635-1233 X 2122
Fax: (831) 457-5897