QR Codes On Baby Foods May Soon Show Heavy Metal Content

Parents all over the United States may soon be able to determine how much lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury are in the food they feed their babies, thanks to a California law, the first of its kind, that took effect this year.

As of 1 January 2025, every company that sells baby food products in California is required to test for these four heavy metals every month. That comes five years after a congressional report warned about the presence of dangerously high levels of lead and other heavy metals in baby food.

Every baby food product packaged in jars, pouches, tubs and boxes sold in California must carry a QR code on its label that consumers can scan to check the most recent heavy metal readings, although many are not yet complying.

Because companies seldom package products for a single state, parents and caregivers across the country will be able to scan these QR codes or go online to the companies’ websites and see the results.

Soil naturally contains heavy metals. The earth formed as a hot molten mass. As it cooled, heavier elements settled into its center regions, called the mantle and core. Volcanic eruptions in certain areas have brought these heavy metals to the surface over time. The volcanic rock erodes to form heavy metal-laden soil, contaminating nearby water supplies.

Another major source of soil contamination is the exhaust from fossil fuels, and in particular leaded gasoline. Some synthetic fertilizers contribute, too.

Heavy metals in the soil can pass into foods via several routes. Plants that yield foods such as sweet potatoes and carrots, apples, cinnamon, rice and plant-based protein powder are especially good at extracting them from contaminated soil.

Sometimes the contamination happens after harvesting. For example, local water that contains heavy metals is often used to rinse debris and bugs off natural products, such as leaves used to make a widely used supplement called kratom. When the water evaporates, the heavy metals are retained on the surface. Sometimes drying products in the open air, such as cacao beans for dark chocolate, allows dust laden with heavy metals to stick to their surface.

Producers can reduce heavy metal contamination in food in several ways, which range from modestly to very effectively. First, they can reserve more contaminated areas for growing crops that are less prone to taking in heavy metals from the soil, such as peppers, beans, squash, melons and cucumbers, and conversely grow more susceptible crops in less-contaminated areas. They can also dry plants on uncontaminated soil and filter heavy metals out of water before washing produce.

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CDC: Pregnant Women Should Not Drink Alchohol

A Center for Disease (CDC) study revealed that "more than 3 million US women are at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol because they are drinking, having sex, and not using birth control to prevent pregnancy."

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is "associated with a range of complications and poor reproductive outcomes and can cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which are characterized by lifelong physical, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities," the CDC report said, adding that exposure to alcohol in the womb is one of the leading preventable causes of intellectual disability in children.

It can also "increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)," the CDC said.

The team analyzed data from the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth and found that three in four women who wanted to get pregnant as soon as possible reported they continued to drink alcohol.

"About half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and even if planned, most women won't know they are pregnant for the first month or so, when they might still be drinking," said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director at the CDC.

CDC recommends that women who are pregnant or might be pregnant not drink alcohol at all. FASDs do not occur if a developing baby is not exposed to alcohol before birth.

Women can:

• Talk with their health care provider about their plans for pregnancy, their alcohol use, and ways to prevent pregnancy if they are not planning to get pregnant.
• Stop drinking alcohol if they are trying to get pregnant or could get pregnant.
• Ask their partner, family, and friends to support their choice not to drink during pregnancy or while trying to get pregnant.
• Ask their health care provider or another trusted person about resources for help if they cannot stop drinking on their own.

Doctors, nurses, or other health professionals can help prevent alcohol use during pregnancy in 5 ways:

1. Provide alcohol screening and brief counseling to all women.
2. Recommend birth control to women who are having sex (if appropriate), not planning to get pregnant, and drinking alcohol.
3. Advise women who are trying to get pregnant to stop drinking alcohol.
4. Refer for additional services for women who cannot stop drinking on their own.
5. Follow up yearly or more often, as needed.

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"Polite" Way Of Protecting Health in Public Pools

Tired of seeing inconsiderate parents use public facilities to disgust everyone around them? One hotel in England found a polite way to deal with these nuisance by posting notices ordering parents to keep infants off of benches in the changing area of the resort's pool.

The sign was labeled a "Polite notice," and many clients praised the hotel management for appropriately putting rude parents in their proper place.

And while many mothers understand the premise behind the sign — to prevent parents from changing their children on the benches — they thought that maybe there is another way to deliver the message.

"The wording is disgusting," mother Toni Bird fumed to the U.K.'s Coventry Telegraph about a poster at the Village Urban Resorts hotel in Coventry, England, which reads: "Polite notice: These benches are for bums — not bags or babies! Thank you" and urges parents to "vacate" changing rooms with their children promptly after swimming.

The regional director of the hotel, Stephen Cresswell, offered a mea culpa — for the tone of the sign but not its message. "If someone has been offended by the sign that has been put up then we, of course, apologize for that," he told the media. "But a sign like that would only have been put up from a health and safety perspective to help everyone who uses the club."

Support are pouring in to defend the the resort.

One member vented that she loved the sign because she's "also fed up with mothers plonking their kids on the benches and allowing them to eat/drink, make a mess and take up room! ... It's about time staff tell some thoughtless people about their behavior."

And another remarked: "[The sign] doesn’t offended me in the slightest. If people don’t like it they can go elsewhere. Nothing worse than getting back to change and finding some mums covering the benches with what only looks like they have enough changing bags for the week, leaving no one else any room to get changed. And yes before anyone moans I have got children!"

What do you think?

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