Just in time for Halloween – Homemade recipe for lead-free face paint.

Face paint can contain a lot of nasty toxins that are harmful to children and adults. When the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics tested 10 different brands of face paint it found out that all of them contained lead. So, this year try this simple lead-free homemade recipe:

1 teaspoon cornstarch

½ teaspoon water

½ teaspoon all-natural diaper rush cream (one without zinc oxide)

1-2 drops natural food coloring

Mix water and cornstarch. Add diaper rush cream and food coloring.

Joanna Cerazy, co-author Lead Babies

Looking for healthy snacks for your kids? Make sure they do not contain artificial food colorings.

Lead is an ingredient in many artificial food colorings. An artificial food coloring is added to a food or other product in order to make it more appealing, to disguise natural color variations, or to offset color loss due to sun exposure, humidity, etc. Compared to natural colorings, artificial ones are less expensive, so they are a preferred choice of many manufacturers. Artificial food colorings add neither taste nor nutritional value to food and since they are made from coal tar and petrochemicals, our bodies are unable to digest them.

Food colorings have been linked to a number of different health conditions such as anxiety, cancer, brain tumours, allergies, migraines, blurred vision and asthma. Even though the jury is still out on the question if food colorings cause behaviour problems, by now, it has been well-researched and documented that lead plays a causal role in the development of behaviour problems, ADHD, hyperactivity, as well as learning disabilities and reduced IQ. It is true that the amount of lead contained in these artificial colorings meets the guidelines of the US Food and Drug Administration, but it is also true that not all lead gets excreted once consumed. Some of the ingested lead accumulates in the human body. So what is a minute amount at a single dose, becomes a dangerous amount as an over-the-years build up in the brain, teeth, bones and soft tissue.

Artificial food colorings are abundant in most of our foods and personal care products. They are present in drinks, (including juices, sports and re-hydration beverages). They are an added ingredient in candy, cereals, oranges and syrups. They lurk in jams, cake and soup mixes, and condiments. They are found in fruit cocktail, meal replacement bars and powders, instant noodles, bakery products and icing. They are an ingredient in popular snack foods, even the ones marketed as "healthy." Colorings are used in the preparation of cheese, sausage and salmon. They are an ingredient in pet food. Artificial colorings find their way into personal care products such as face and hand cream, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste and chapstick. These colorings also hide in medication, including children’s remedies and vitamins.

Artificial colorings, and the lead contained in them, should and can be avoided. It only requires that we start paying attention to what is listed on food labels. If an item contains artificial colors DON'T buy it. Initially, it might present itself as a little challenge, but since we, humans, are creatures of habit, and we tend to buy the same products repeatedly, with time, this task will become just someting you do.

For more information on artificial food coloring visit the US Food and Drug Administration website. It offers a wealth of official government information about the various approved colorings and their content (including lead, mercury, arsenic, etc). In order to access the detailed information on each additive, scroll down the page, and click on the number in the 21 CFR Section.

Joanna Cerazy
Co-author Lead Babies: How heavy metals cause our children’s autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, low IQ and behaviour problems.

LEAD FOUND in BABY FOODS and JUICES

On June 9, 2010 the Environmental Law Foundation, a non-profit organization from Oakland, California filed a Notice of Violation of California Proposition 65 alleging that lead was present in a variety of children’s and baby food. More specifically, lead was reported to be contained in apple and grape juices, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), as well as various fruit cocktails.
Environmental Law Foundation purchased a large number of samples of assorted brands of juices and fruit products around California and tested them in an EPA-sponsored lab. The results showed that many individual servings of these products, contained lead levels that are above the federal daily limit established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Lead is very a potent toxin that has to be avoided at all cost. Babies and small children are especially sensitive to lead’s harm. Lead-containing baby food and juice can provide significant exposure sources of this dangerous metal. It has been established by various scientific communities that the lead effects such as learning disabilities, ADHD, lowered IQ, mental retardation, behavior problems, criminal activity, autism, cerebral palsy, and birth defects can be caused by lead exposure and it is now common knowledge that levels below what is considered toxic contribute to behavioral and learning problems.
It is hard to say with any certainty how the lead got into these foods but since it does not dissolve over time, once released, lead stays in the environment. It can be taken up by plants from the soil or it can be deposited on plants and fruits as airborne particles. It can also end up in these products as a contaminant from the processing process.

Some brands and products reported to have exceeding amounts of lead include:
Beech Nut 100% Apple Juice
Chef's Review Fruit Cocktail
Del Monte 100% Juice Fruit Cocktail
Dole Diced Peaches, Yellow Cling in light syrup
Earth's Best Organics Apple Juice
Eating Right Fruit Cocktail packed in Sucralose
First Street 100% Apple Cider from concentrate
Full Circle Organic Bartlett Pear Slices
Gerber 100% Juice - White Grape Juice
Golden Star Mixed Fruit in Light Syrup (peach, pineapple, pears)
Great Value 100% No Sugar Added Apple Juice
Hansen's Natural Apple Juice
Kedem Concord Grape Juice 100% pure grape juice
Kroger 100% Juice Apple Juice
Langers Grape Juice (Concord)
Libby's Fruit Cocktail No Sugar Added (Sweetened with Splenda)
Libby's Yellow Cling Peach Slices No Sugar Added (Sweetened with Splenda)
Market Pantry Diced Peaches in light syrup
Maxx Value Fruit Mix in Light Syrup (peach, pear, grape)
Minute Maid Juice Apple - 100% Apple Juice
Motts 100% Apple Juice
Mrs. Brown's Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup (peaches, pears, grapes)
O Organics Organic Grape Juice from concentrate
Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice
Parade 100% Juice Apple
Polar Mixed Fruit
R.W. Knudsen Just Concord Grape Juice
S&W Natural Style Fruit Cocktail in Lightly Sweetened Juice
Safeway 100% Juice Apple Cider
Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Juice
Simple Value Yellow Cling Peaches in light syrup
Stater Bros. 100% Juice Apple Juice
Sunny Select Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches in Pear Juice
Trader Joe's Certified Organic Apple Juice, pasteurized
Tree Top 100% Juice Apple Cider
Truitt Brothers Pacific NorthWest Bartlett Pear Halves, in pear juice
Valu Time Grape Drink from Concentrate
Walgreens Apple Juice from concentrate 100% juice
Walnut Acres Organic Concord Grape
Welch's 100% Red Grape Juice from Concentrate
A complete list of all products and other details pertaining to this case can be found at the Environmental Law Foundation’s website at http://www.envirolaw.org/
Joanna Cerazy
co-author Lead Babies