Reader Comment:

I wanted to quickly highlight this comment left by reader Loretta under a previous post entitled "China's food safety woes now a global concern":

"I have a lead testing kit I used to test my garden soil. After reading your post I decided to test some of my household items just for the heck of it. I started with my glazed ceramics and stoneware, some of which I drink/eat out of daily. The items from Canada, Spain,Ireland, etc., were negative, but when I got to my Made in China mugs--Bingo!--every one tested positive for leachable lead. Kind of scary."

Lead is still considered perhaps the chief preventable hazard to childhood development. An ongoing treatise on how common toxic chemicals threaten children is called "In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development Project", written by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsility. The rise of ADHD in recent decades is almost certainly linked to chemical poisoning.

Oh, and by the way...the lead industry spent decades stifling legislation and knowledge from reaching the public regarding the dangers of lead to children. A brief history of this conspiracy and malfeasance -- with a plethora of advertising copy to illustrate -- is available on the Cincinnati Children's Hospital website: the History of Lead Industry Advertisements.