Kids are consuming harmful amounts of heavy metals when they eat fast food, according to the nonprofit Moms Across America’s (MAA) report on heavy metalsin foods sold by the U.S.’ 20 top-selling fast food restaurants.
One hundred percent of the samples tested by MAA contained “alarming” levels of lead and cadmium, and roughly 93% of samples contained detectable levels of arsenic, according to the test results.
The nonprofit tested fast food because many Americans eat fast food and some fast food chains supply school lunches.
The MAA testing found food with lead levels nearly 5 times the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) daily maximum for kids. According to the FDA, “Lead is toxic to humans and can affect people of any age or health status.
Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) points out that no amount of lead exposure is safe, especially for kids, as it can cause lifelong IQ damage.
“Lead is particularly dangerous to children,” the EPA says, “because their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults do and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead.”
Both cadmium and arsenic are carcinogenic. MAA found food with cadmium levels more than 11 times higher and arsenic more than 3.5 times higher than levels the EPA allows in drinking water.
Even low levels of cadmium can cause kidney damage, and exposure to arsenicmay harm the eyes, skin, liver, kidneys, lungs and lymphatic system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Zen Honeycutt, MAA founder and executive director, in an Oct. 17 congressional briefing urged policymakers to support measures that would get organic, non-toxic food on kids’ lunch trays. She told The Defender:
“These reports show that Americans are being poisoned every day by fast food and school lunches. Our elected officials need to do their job, and find the political will to make policies that protect our children and the future of this country.”
“The security, success, and future of our country depends on the mental and physical health of our children,” she said in the MAA press release.
Commenting on the results, attorney Pedram Esfandiary, a partner at Wisner Baum, told The Defender:
“I can’t say I’m surprised. The food industry for years has dug in its heels and said these metals are in the environment at ambient levels and that there’s not much they can do about it.
“But we know this is not true because plenty of food companies source ingredients responsibly and their foods are not loaded with toxic metals.”
Esfandiary represents thousands of U.S. children who were diagnosed with autism or severe attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after consuming high levels of heavy metals in popular baby food.
He said, “The science linking heavy metals to brain injury which, in turn, can manifest as neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD, is robust.”
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