Lead Paint in Toys... or on a Plate!

While I was headed off on a road trip the other day, I tuned in to the local news radio channel to get my traffic and weather updates. “Traffic and weather on the 8’s!” It wasn’t quite on the 8 yet, so I still had the volume down low (I can’t stand all the absurd half-truths and negative garbage that counts as “news”).

Then I heard the reporter talking about the number of parents, health officials and even politicians who were up in arms about ‘the problem our children are facing is one much greater than just lead alone’. In fact, this reporter stated, our children are being exposed to extremely dangerous poisons like mercury, cadmium, and other known carcinogens. Since I missed the very beginning of the report, I thought to myself, “Oh my gosh… they’re finally going mainstream with the vaccine story!!!”

But NOOOO… the story wasn’t about vaccines at all. It was about the ongoing lead-paint-and-other-poisons-in-the-toys saga. Do I think this is an important issue? You betcha’! I think it’s criminal that profit would ever come before health and safety, especially that of a child. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I see happening in “health care” in the U.S. every single day, year after year. Can’t say it surprises me anymore.

What blows my mind the most about this story is how much attention it’s getting in mainstream media AND from parents. I agree that we should all be aware of the problem. I also think the problem should have been handled by now. What exactly is taking so long? Oh wait… somebody must profit somewhere, somehow by letting a few more kids suck on lead! I digress...

What I can’t understand is the lack of attention paid to all the OTHER poisonous, toxic substances our kids consume every single day. Why are toys in the news day after day for months now, but I never see anything about high fructose corn syrup and all the brain-droning damage it causes? How about the link to childhood obesity? High fructose corn syrup is in nearly every factory food on the shelves and in an obscene amount of fast foods and convenience foods. What about excitoxins (poisons to the brain) like nutrasweet? How about sharing a little more factual health information about less-than-safe substances like splenda? Gee, enough people are using these sweeteners now, it sure seems important to inform us regarding exactly what's in them and what damage they could cause. Sound like a great front page story!

Why have toys become an international scandal, yet our own food and ‘safety’ folks in this country are pumping up our meat with more antibiotics and other drugs than the local hospital and then irradiating it “for our safety”? How is it legal for cows supplying our dairy products to be so loaded up with hormones and steroids? Is there anyone out there who doesn’t believe this has an adverse effect on us… especially growing kids? Why have we been led to believe that conventional high sugar breakfast cereals, pre-packaged lunches, hormonally-laced milk and dairy, fruit drinks, diet foods, junk food and fast food are OK? Do parents even realize how bad things have gotten? I suppose they would if it ever made the news as often as the toy issue.

How have we become a society that has a drug for every single symptom we could possibly experience? How is it that countless kids are now taking more drugs than their grandparents? More vaccines are being marketed each year. More profit is made. Do we have better health? How are we making out with our rates of cancer? Childhood obesity? Mental and emotional issues? I could go on and on – I think you get the point. We’ve somehow been hoodwinked into thinking that if everyone else is eating and thinking and treating their bodies this way, it must be normal. Common? Yes. Normal? Not in the world of optimal health! Health can’t happen in the face of such an overwhelming onslaught of toxicity.

The toy issue is a battle worth fighting, for sure. It’s just unfathomable to me that many of the same folks who are concerned about the safety of the toys their kids are playing with may be unknowingly causing far more damage with the food they’re serving up for their kids and the drugs they hand out for every sniffle and cough. Now THAT’S newsworthy!