At Thanksgiving dinner, my mother told me this story; she claimed it happened to the wife of a co-worker’s brother or something like that. Immediately I said - “are you sure this isn’t some urban legend?” She insisted it was true.
She said that this woman, a health fanatic, ate many seaweed snacks over the course of months or possibly even years. Arsenic from the seaweed built up in her body, and she died. Two weeks ago, I think, was when she died. The seaweed snacks were made by the Eden company, for what it’s worth.
I was extremely skeptical and still am. I would think this would be all over the news if it happened and the company would go out of business or at the very least be engaging in a blitzkrieg of ass-covering disclaimers.
I could not find any evidence about any death from sea vegetables for this reason. However, some seeweed does contain more arsenic than others. the British Food Safety Agency just issued a warning concerning Hijiki seaweed, but did not ban the product.
For what it’s worth, you were correct in identifying this as an urban legend. That almost guarantees the specifics you heard were untrue (that company, the two-week period), but it is a separate issue from whether scenario in the story is possible, as answered above.
Nothing on seaweed, but my doctor has warned us against eating shark-supposedly, it contains too much iodine, and excessive consumption can lead to iodine poisoning.
I was consuming lots of kelp at one time and U of M hospital noticed some eye symptoms related to a thyroid problem possibly related to the high iodine content. I quit the kelp and the symptoms quit me.