Is Prop 65 ridiculously strict? Is there some reason to doubt this testing lab? Considering that these products are marketed to and disproportionately consumed by small children, there isn’t *any *safe level of lead for them to consume, is there?
Considering that this is California, the requirements are probably for “any detectable amount”, or something similarly absurd. When you look with precise enough measurements, everything contains traces of everything in it.
I hope the OP doesn’t look up lead content in chocolate.
According to the Environmental Law Foundation who did the study, the limit is 0.5 micrograms of lead per serving. (This PDF document has a list of products that they found at least one sample that tested positive.)
I managed to find this PDF which has some amounts listed for CA Prop 65, though I’m having trouble figuring it out.
It has two tables…one is the “No Significant Risk Level (NSRL) adopted in regulation of carcinogens” and the other is “Maximum allowable dose level (MADL) adopted in regulation for chemicals causing reproductive toxicity.”
So the first amount for Lead (NSRL) is 15 micrograms per day (just straight lead, not any of the other lead compounds.) So anything at that level or less isn’t considered a risk for cancer?
The other level for lead, (MADL) is only 0.5 micro grams per day…so I guess it takes a lot less lead to cause reproductive effects.
But how do you measure a “daily dose” from one sample of juice/fruit? Is it assumed so many cups of juice/pieces of fruit per day? Perhaps they are assuming all fruit servings are coming from these ones?
So I guess we might be able to guess the fruit and/or juice has anywhere from 0.5 to 15 micrograms? Or less if they are “adding them up” to get a whole day’s worth.
How does lead get into these food products (and other products such as make-up that have been said to have high-lead content)? Is it residuals from machine processing or what? Do apples (or whatever) themselves just contain lead naturally?
Hmm… according to this OSHA page, the maximum allowable concentration of lead in air for a workplace is 50 micrograms per cubic meter. That’s 0.2 micrograms per gallon of air.
I’m not sure if it’s meaningful to compare these, but it seems very strict to require that a serving of food has less lead in it than 2.5 gallons of air from a marginally contaminated workplace.
Well, I did now! 
And yes, there was a lawsuit in 2002, also for violating this same California law because of lead in chocolate. http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/food-stores/4247205-1.html At that time, at least, the FDA said the level of lead in chocolate did not pose a health risk. Do you know if that level is greater, less than or the same in fruit juice and fruit cups?
According to wikipedia, the level of lead in chocolate is 0.0010 to 0.0965 µg lead per gram of chocolate, so it sounds like chocolate in moderation is okay, probably. Doesn’t address the lead in fruit products.
Thanks, bouv! At least this gives me some numbers to go on, once I can find some better numbers from this study. If a single fruit cup has 0.25 (number derived rectally)micrograms per fruit cup, I know to stop my daughter at one cup per day (which, realistically speaking, is more than she eats on a regular basis anyhow - she consumes most of her fruit as fruit. But I still do use canned fruit or fruit cups for convenience and variety, and fruit juice boxes for special treats during travel and camping.)
Don’t know. I did find this claim from a food manufacturer:
(bolding mine)
So, yes, now I want to know if these products have more or less lead than the fruit as it occurs in nature. Or, more precisely, in my grocery store.
I think the biggest problem in comparing them is that I don’t know if lead is absorbed through the respiratory tract the same way it is through the digestive tract, and children aren’t generally spending much time in workplaces.
Last I checked, lead poisoning is not cancer, so the two tables quoted are apples and floor tiles.
Oh, and to the OP –
Of course you should be “freaking out.” The best thing you can do is limit the amount of processed shit your kids have access to. If they don’t develop a taste for that crap early, they may never.
At one time, widespread use of leaded gasoline dispersed lead into the atmosphere, soil, and environment. Perhaps that is the source of lead contamination in food products?
Is there any evidence that processed food (however you define it) have higher concentration of lead than unprocessed food?
Good question.
At least in a first world country, I have a hard time imagining how food being processed is exposed to significant levels of lead in the processing. Other stuff that leaches from the plastics, metals, paints, cans, and stuff in the water yeah. Lead? not so much.
Yeah, but how much of our processed food comes from China? I know tilapia is farmed in the US, sent to China for packaging, then sent back here to be sold. Today I saw a package of peeled garlic that said “product of china” on it.
I don’t have kids, but when I do they’ll be getting very, very little processed “food.”
Absolutely, and I do. I’m a big fan of Food Revolution. 
As I said, most of her fruit comes from fruit. But I’d also be happier to see a fruit cup (bonus points for pear juice instead of sugar syrup) in her school cafeteria than a bag of cookies…or so I thought until I saw this.
You mean processed shit and crap like this stuff?
As someone who moved to California at age 23, I can tell you I got to the point where I totally ignored Prop 65 warning signs within a few months of having moved there. They are everywhere in California.
There are a lot of things that happen during processing that can increase the amount of harmful stuff in it. Particularly when you consider that processed foods often include concentrates and extracts. If the process also concentrates and extracts contaminants, then your food might wind up with more than you’d ever get from the natural product.
Fair enough, but I said exposed you’ll note. The lead would still be there naturally in the food in the first place. Now, if it preferentially concentrates or extracts the lead as you note that could be a problem. But, then again, it seems to me concentrates and extracts are usually added to foodstuffs in small amounts because they are pretty strong.
I don’t follow… Pear juice is sugar syrup.