Monica Rhor, AP, January 22, 2008
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Dozens of adults and children have become gravely ill or died after taking lead-laden medicine over the past eight years, according to federal and local health officials.
The dangerous medicines are manufactured outside the United States and sold in the U.S. by folk healers known as curanderas and in ethnic grocery stores and neighborhood shops that offer herbs and charms. They are usually brought into the country by travelers in their suitcases, thereby slipping past government regulators.
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Lead is added to many of the concoctions because of its supposed curative properties, even though doctors say it has no proven medical benefits. In other cases, powders and pills become contaminated with lead from soil or through the manufacturing process.
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In Harris County, which includes Houston, traditional medicines are blamed for nearly one-fifth of all cases in which children were found to have high levels of lead. In Arizona, home remedies account for one-fourth of childhood lead poisoning cases.
In Texas, California and Arizona, lead poisoning has been traced to Mexican remedies such as greta, azarcon and rueda—powders that are given to treat constipation in children and contain as much as 90 percent lead. In New York City and Rhode Island, high lead levels in the blood have been tied to litargirio, a powder containing up to 79 percent lead. It is used by Dominican immigrants for such ills as foot fungus and body odor.
Dangerous amounts of lead have also been found in ayurvedic medicines, which are used in India and commonly found in South Asian immigrant communities in New York, Chicago and Houston. These medicines include ghasard, a brown powder given to relieve constipation in babies, and mahayogaraj gugullu, for high blood pressure.
Traditional medicines may account for up to 30 percent of all childhood lead poisoning cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates 240,000 U.S. children were diagnosed with high blood lead levels in 2004 to 2006.
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The use of folk medicine is rooted in generations-old cultural traditions. Ayurvedic medicine, for example, originated more than 2,000 years ago in India, where 80 percent of the population uses it.
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In Houston, where one in four residents is foreign-born, Health Department officials routinely pay undercover visits to herbalist stores and try to buy remedies known to contain lead. Often, however, storekeepers are reluctant to admit they carry the medicine, bringing them out only when they know the customer, Reyes said.
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In 2004, the CDC reported 12 cases of lead poisoning associated with ayurvedic remedies in Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and California. In one case, a 37-year-old woman, hospitalized with abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, reported taking five different traditional medications for rheumatoid arthritis.
Many state and local health departments have issued warnings about lead in folk medicines, and sometimes use questionnaires to screen youngsters in poor neighborhoods and immigrant communities for lead poisoning from folk remedies. The Food and Drug Administration has also issued alerts about certain medicines, including litargirio.
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Original article
(Posted on January 23, 2008)
Comments
Note to self: Cancel appointment with Dr. Rodriguez.
Posted by Timothy1968 at 7:13 PM on January 23
I’m not worried about this as I don’t take folk medicine…
Posted by lydia at 7:25 PM on January 23
Leads not the only dangerous thing in such folk remedies. Very often, the criminals who make these remedies add in various illegal drugs in order to get a treatment effect. With no quality control and often dangerous to take outside of prescribed guidelines, these remedies can kill a person.
Further, they are often imported illegally. The US does not allow just anything to be imported. If its not on a very short list of items with a GRAS label (generally regarded as safe) you must register your item and PROVE it is safe before you will be given an exception that allows you to import it.
Almost all of these remedies are, in fact, illegal to import and illegal to sell in the US.
Posted by at 9:22 PM on January 23
Apostle Orson Pratt taught that some people don’t receive an “honourable body” because they sided with the Devil in a previous life:
“At the time the devil was cast out of heaven, there were some spirits that did not know who had authority, whether God or the devil. They consequently did NOT TAKE A VERY ACTIVE PART ON EITHER SIDE, BUT RATHER THOUGHT THE DEVIL HAD BEEN ABUSED, AND CONSIDERED HE HAD RATHER THE BEST CLAIM TO THE GOVERNMENT. These spirits were not considered bad enough to be cast down to hell, and never have bodies; neither were they CONSIDERED WORTHY OF AN HONOURABLE BODY on this earth: but it came to pass that Ham, the son of Noah, saw the nakedness of his father while he lay drunk in his tent, and he with ‘wicked joy,’ ran like Rigdon, and made the wonderful disclosure to his brethren; while Shem and Japheth took a garment, with pity and compassion, laid it upon their shoulders—went backwards and covered their father,… The conduct of the former BROUGHT THE CURSE OF SLAVERY upon him, while that of the latter secured blessings, jurisdiction, power and dominion….Canaan, the son of Ham, received the curse; for Noah wished to place the curse as remote from himself as possible. He therefore placed it upon his grandson instead of his son. Now, it would seem cruel to force PURE celestial spirits into the world through the lineage of Canaan that had been cursed. This would be ill appropriate, putting the PRECIOUS and VILE together. But those spirits in heaven that rather LENT AN INFLUENCE to the DEVIL, thinking he had a little the best right to govern, but did not take a very active part any way were required to come into the world and take bodies information concerning the doctrine of pre-existence: “Is there reason then why the type of birth we receive in this life is not in the ACCURSED lineage of Canaan; and hence the NEGRO or African race.”
(Speech of Elder Orson Hyde, delivered before the High Priests’ Quorum, in Nauvoo. April 27th, 1845, printed in Liverpool, page 30)
Posted by stevepearsonnl at 10:37 PM on January 23
I used to hear it all when I worked in a hospital. If you are bitten by a venemous viper, grab it and bite it back!
Posted by underdog at 11:20 PM on January 23
It’s not just their folk medicine. It’s also mexican candies. They’re laced with lead. And they’re brought into the US.
Here is a page on it: http://www.ocregister.com/investigations/2004/lead/index.php
Posted by Deporter at 11:36 AM on January 24
The problem is wider than the article implies. All those Chinese medicines are in question. They are brought into various China Towns with no FDA or even customs checking. I recall at least one case years ago when a Chinese remedy perscribed by a “Chinese Medicine Practioner” in the SF region killed the patient. There is absolutely no concept of quality control in China - as we are seeing today. But there never has been any.
In the case of the Mexican remedies - perhaps that is one explanation for their historical extreme emotional responses to anything? But I think that is genetic too. Generations of poisoning could translate into transferable genetic mutation.
Posted by Whiteplight at 2:48 PM on January 24
