To Your Health

Q. I eat a lot of canned fish, and sometimes canned beans and tomato products. Is there still lead in canned food? How can I know when a can is likely to have lead?

A. Although the use of lead was much more widespread in the past, it still has thousands of uses, and several sources can contaminate food and water even today without your knowledge. Nondietary sources are now much more common than any solder-derived lead in canned foods.

Before 1995, when the U.S. canning industry voluntarily stopped the use of lead solder to seal food cans, the Food and Drug Administration estimates that about one-third of lead in food came from such cans. Food in lead-soldered cans may yet make its way into the U.S. from foreign countries, and the FDA estimates that up to 10% of food imported each year is packaged in lead-soldered cans. Reducing your chances of encountering lead in canned food is as simple as identifying cans that use lead solder. Cans with lead solder have a silver-gray metallic smear of solder along their seams. These cans will also have small dents along the seam from the soldering process. Lead-free cans either have a thin, sharply defined blue-black paint line along the seam from wire welding, or they have no seam at all.

The levels of lead in food and drink today are perhaps the lowest in history, about 90% lower than years past. Paint is now the greatest danger for lead exposure, especially in children. About 90% of homes built before 1940 contain lead-based paints, as do about 60% of homes built before 1978, when lead house paint was banned. If you live in such a home, call your local health department to find out how to get your paint tested.

Up until the mid-1970s, leaded gasoline was responsible for most of the lead in the environment. Even though we are no longer adding to this source of lead, an estimated 4 million to 5 million metric tons of lead have accumulated in the soil due to the use of leaded gasoline in previous years. This lead will continue to show up in our agricultural products, in diminishing amounts, for many more years.

With the elimination of the major sources of lead contamination, other sources are getting more attention. In 1988 the use of lead in water pipes was banned, and in 1992 the use of lead foil on wine bottles was eliminated. The Environmental Protection Agency banned lead in pesticides in 1988. In 1991 the FDA lowered the limits for lead in ceramic ware and required warning labels on ornamental products, such as, "Not for Food Use -- May Poison Food. For Decorative Purposes Only." Kits are available for detecting lead leaching from ceramic ware and, though not always sensitive enough to detect small amounts of lead, are valuable for identifying items that release larger amounts of lead.

If you use herbal products, you should be aware that several from foreign countries contain significant amounts of lead. Azarcon, also known as alarzon, Maria Luisa, liga, Greta, coral, or rueda, is a Mexican treatment for coliclike illness that is 90% lead. Pay-loo-ah, an Indochinese remedy for high fever, can also contain as much as 90% lead. It is truly tragic that these remedies are often used in children, who are much more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults.

Although our environment is not pristine, we are "getting the lead out."