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Lead pigment in turmeric is the culprit in a global poisoning mystery (2024)

390 points| perihelions | 8 months ago |npr.org | reply

214 comments

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[+] phendrenad2|8 months ago|reply
I think this NPR article is too quick to put a positive spin on this. They have made a nice little story here with a happy ending. Farmers had blackened turmeric -> they used a random yellow die they found -> massive lead spike in everyone's bloodstream -> Americans came in with a xray gun and saved the day -> no more lead in the blood.

But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans involved, you have to wonder if this problem will come back.

[+] abeppu|8 months ago|reply
> But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans involved, you have to wonder if this problem will come back.

From the article:

> And recently they are celebrating some big news on the lead fighting front: This week, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new $150 million initiative to combat lead poisoning.

Americans have disassembled USAID. The agency of Americans is also contributing to this reccuring.

[+] Amezarak|8 months ago|reply
I don't think the NPR reporter is deliberately spinning the story. I think a lot of people don't really believe that other people are really different from them. The reporter would never knowingly poison people for money, so it's not comprehensible to them that lots of people in the world just don't care whether they do or not. The only reason in their minds that people would do such a thing are economic desperation combined with ignorance; if those two factors are gone, they really believe the problem has been forever solved.
[+] mathgradthrow|8 months ago|reply
in the article it asserts that the farmers didn't know the effects of lead chromate on human health, they were just "expanding their business".

I guess since it's just fraud and negligence, we should forgive it?

[+] shermantanktop|8 months ago|reply
That's a BS detection step that I apply to anecdotes: who lacks agency in this story?
[+] infinitifall|8 months ago|reply
I'm put off by how this is framed as a detective story. Pesticides that contain heavy metals and other carcinogens are a well known issue, with India (and South Asia more generally) being the worst affected.

> You'll never guess the culprit

Not knowing about turmeric comes off as deeply ignorant when a billion people consume it as part of their daily diet.

> They don't know that this is harmful for human health

Let me assure you that they absolutely do and they couldn't care less. This also makes it seem like poor clueless farmers are to blame while mega-corporations that process, package, market and distribute these spices are never given even a passing mention!

[+] vasusen|8 months ago|reply
I grew up in India and now live in the US. My mom recently got some ground turmeric from our own farm when she visited us. I am was stunned by how much more duller, brownish-yellow it was compared to the turmeric I buy in Indian stores in the US. Those are usually really bright yellows.

Now, I am really scared that even stuff sold in California is probably lead paint tainted turmeric.

[+] tomalpha|8 months ago|reply
I wonder if this has survived the recent cutbacks to USAID?

    And recently they are celebrating some big news on the lead fighting front: This week, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new $150 million initiative to combat lead poisoning
[+] lejalv|8 months ago|reply 

    "It is long overdue that the world is coming together," says Samatha Power <https://www.usaid.gov/organization/samantha-power>, who runs USAID.
That is a 404. And the homepage has a Notification of Administrative Leave

    As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally (...)
[+] mandown2308|8 months ago|reply
What I got by reading the paper: loose tumeric powder and polished tumeric root are the main "culprits" because they are contaminated with Lead Chromate (chemical used in paintings for yellow color.)

If you're using branded/packaged tumeric powder, or natural unpolished tumeric root, you're still good as a tumeric consumer in South Asia (though the paper differentiates branded vs packaged tumeric in Table 2, but does not explicitly explain the difference.)

Also, Patna in Bihar is the major source of Lead-adulterated tumeric (in the forms mentioned above) in India, and any exports of tumeric to other places from Patna could be harmful. Lead contamination in Guwahati, Assam is mostly found in imported tumeric from Patna.

[+] LarsDu88|8 months ago|reply
I immediately tested the 5 year old Sadaf tumeric in my kitchen cabinet using a 3M lead testing kit I happened to have in my house. Thankfully it came out negative!
[+] perihelions|8 months ago|reply
That doesn't sound technically plausible to me—there aren't any inexpensive tests. Do you mean something like this 3M product[0], that's intended for paint not food, and is documented as "LeadCheck™ Swabs reliabily detect lead in paints at 0.5% (5,000 ppm). 3M™ LeadCheck™ Swabs may indicate lead in some paint films as low as 0.06% (600ppm)."? If so, those aren't remotely suited for this purpose—those detection lower-bounds represent astronomically high amounts of lead, for a food item.

The highest end of Pb contamination in turmeric in Bangladesh (as in OP) is, from a cursory search, maybe 483 ppm [1]. Regulatory limits in the US are in the low parts-per-billion [2]. This metal bioaccumulates over a lifetime.

[0] (.pdf) https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1581338O/3m-leadcheck-in...

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25214856/ ("Contaminated turmeric is a potential source of lead exposure for children in rural Bangladesh" / "Results: Lead concentrations in many turmeric samples were elevated, with lead concentrations as high as 483 ppm")

[2] https://www.consumerreports.org/babies-kids/baby-food/fda-pr...

[+] kragen|8 months ago|reply
Although the headline sort of reveals the culprit, it's still sort of clickbaity; I think it ought to explain that it was specifically lead chromate added as a yellow pigment to the turmeric in Bangladesh in order to improve its salability, because the best turmeric is naturally a very similar bright yellow.
[+] loopdoend|8 months ago|reply
Wish there were some way to detect impurities like this at home.
[+] Joel_Mckay|8 months ago|reply
There are very sensitive indicator drops used for identifying ceramic glazes containing lead on antique porcelain.

There are also handheld scanners that cost more than a car. And yes, people in the community scan every imported toy and or food item they see to start the FDA ban process when necessary. Should buy local when you can anyway. =3

[+] whiw|8 months ago|reply
I am not a chemist, so take this with a pinch of salt: wouldn't lead chromate + sodium bicarbonate make lead carbonate, a white precipitate? Sodium bicarbonate is likely in your kitchen cupboard already.
[+] bluGill|8 months ago|reply
I have found lead detection kits. However they are somewhat expensive and I'm not sure how well they work.
[+] pfdietz|8 months ago|reply
Hand held x-ray fluorescence spectrometer?
[+] biohcacker84|8 months ago|reply
Led, mercury, cadmium and arsenic are showing up in so many foods. In rice in spinach and obvious in fish.

Microplastics and PFAS in fruits and fish and everything else.

And the most recent TV report on cadmium in spinach, I watched, told me to have a diversified diet.

Diversified into WHAT?

[+] account42|8 months ago|reply
A diet with balanced between cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic, microplastics and PFAS obviously.
[+] ashwinsundar|8 months ago|reply
You can buy dried whole turmeric at Indian stores. Take it home and grind it to powder in a magic bullet. Based on the article, it's harder to hide the bright yellow lead chromate coloring when it's used on whole turmeric, versus ground turmeric.
[+] OJFord|8 months ago|reply
Article explicitly says it was being added to the whole root during buffing, before grinding.

It doesn't seem like something people need to worry about buying it at shops abroad imported properly though - when it was found in the US it was people bringing it home in their luggage.

[+] emmelaich|8 months ago|reply
Reminds me of the Henna problem. People think / expect Henna to be darker than it is so in some countries they added paraphenylenediamine to it.

Paraphenylenediamine is toxic!

[+] hbarka|8 months ago|reply
Why do food producers need to do these fake coloring schemes? They are poisoning the well. In this day and age these ugly practices of the past are discoverable. I don’t care for ugly colors if the tradeoff is toxicity.
[+] Aloisius|8 months ago|reply
It was explained in the article.
[+] khelavastr|8 months ago|reply
Lack of firearms regulations stops public action against lead poisoners. In South America, where street gangs are far more common, you don't see rampant lead pollution the same way.

Nobody dumps lead in narco territories because order of law is so much better enforced than relatively lawless democratic countries like Bangladesh.

[+] tim333|8 months ago|reply
Meh - we don't have much lead in Sainsburys in the UK in spite of having quite strict gun control. I don't think street gangs are the answer to improving health and safety.
[+] amriksohata|8 months ago|reply
I can imagine big american pharma pushing this - no doubt lead might have leaked in but they would not want something natural to pip their profits
[+] genewitch|8 months ago|reply
<nevermind>
[+] hoegarden|8 months ago|reply
There are other instances of lead poisoning and not all turmeric is poisoned.. Therefore everything is a lie?
[+] pengaru|8 months ago|reply
> if this was an issue we'd have known about it before now.

High-larious. TFA is dated 2024, and I've been reading reports about this practice far longer than that.

[+] prairieroadent|8 months ago|reply
there has to be a way for us as a society to introduce a level of accountability into our so called "food" supply chain without the burden of regulation... perhaps it's as simple as spending more educating our kids about agriculture

amendment: seems to be an unpopular take... my point being regulation is a workaround for a population that is worst than uneducated, miseducated, especially in regards to agriculture and "food" supply chain... if kids were provided with an actual education and not miseducated on the subject then the demand for on-demand food testing would go up, and prices for said testing would eventually go down after supply rises to meet demand increasing competition thus encouraging technological innovations to come in and lower prices

amendment ii: in a competitive market where all participants are thoroughly educated and the consumer is armed with the ability to test their food frequently then a market would likely emerge where consumers buy directly from farmers who out of market forces publish test alongside their crop

[+] padjo|8 months ago|reply
So rather than have government do the testing and holding producers to account we get every consumer to do it? That sounds pretty inefficient.
[+] downrightmike|8 months ago|reply
FDA and USDA are supposed to do that. It has to be government lead, because we know business will cheat
[+] crazygringo|8 months ago|reply
> to introduce a level of accountability... without the burden of regulation

Why? What's wrong with regulation?

The whole point of regulation is safety and accountability and fairness.

Yes things can be over-regulated, but then the solution is to regulate properly, not over-regulate. The reason we don't have libertarian or anarchist societies is because they fundamentally can't solve the problems around safety, accountability, and fairness.