by ANDREW HORANSKY / KVUE News
khou.com
Posted on June 22, 2010 at 10:10 AM

AUSTIN, Texas -- There are new worries for parents about lead. This time, they are not from toys, but from juice.

The California-based Environmental Law Foundation, a non-profit group, recently tested 146 different juice and fruit products on the market. It found what some doctors called “alarming” lead levels in a majority of them. Organic brands were included in the study.

The group looked at popular brands of apple juice, grape juice, fruit cocktail, packaged peaches and packaged pears. Eighty-five percent of them exceeded California’s standard of lead per serving. [http://envirolaw.org/documents/ProductsTestedforLeadFINAL.pdf]

“It’s just really sad,” said Bethany Helton, a south Austin parent. “Not only do you have to monitor the soda and the candy and the fat and dyes but now, lead because the soil is bad.”

California’s standard for lead is called Prop 65, and caps acceptable lead levels at half a microgram per serving. The FDA caps acceptable lead levels at six micrograms a day for children who are seven and under.

Austin Pediatrician Dr. Melody Cassels believes a child who consumes even a few micrograms of lead should not be alarmed.

“It’s probably going to get absorbed into the system minimally,” Dr. Cassels said.

Yet she also points out that there is no such thing as a safe level of lead for kids.

“We do know that it causes problems in the brain and nervous system,” Cassels said.

She hopes the study urges more parents to serve fruit instead of juice.

http://www.khou.com/home/Alarming-lead-levels-found-in-fruit-juice-96885369.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor