NEW YORK—Four Herbal medicine products from India are found to have dangerous levels of lead and mercury, warns the New York City Health Department.
Over the Summer the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) investigated Indian-made products that that studies and reports have claimed contain lead or mercury. After visiting many East Asian stores, the DOHMH found three products in Jackson Heights and Flushing to contain dangerous levels of lead or mercury.
"In the past year there have been three confirmed cases of adult lead poisoning among New York City residents who used products they obtained from India", said the DOHMH in a written statement. "These lead poisoning cases reported that they obtained the tainted products while visiting India or from friends and family living in India."
There are no federal standards regulating lead and mercury, but the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommends that food additives contain no more than 2 ppm (parts per million) of lead and no more than 1 ppm of mercury. Products found by the DOHMH contain thousands of ppm of mercury and lead. Jambrulin, used for diabetes, contains 24,300 ppm of lead. Lakshmivilash Ras (Nardiya), used for cough and the cold, contains 14,100 ppm of mercury. Used for the flu and body aches is Maha Sudarshan, containing 2,190 ppm of Mercury.
Lead and mercury were not listed on the products as ingredients. "The sale of products deemed to contain poisonous substances or to be detrimental to human health is prohibited under New York City Health Code," said the DOHMH.
Lead and mercury cause brain, nervous system, and kidney damage. Children and pregnant women are at particular risk said DOHMH Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH.
Stores containing the three products are told to remove them from the stores return them to their distributors. They are told to contact the DOHMH with information on the distributors. People who have bought these products are advised to obtain a blood lead test and mercury urine test, return the products, and report to 311 where the products were purchased.