How much lead in your food is SAFE ?

After the Supreme Court revived the action suit against Nestle, the company admitted to the presence of lead in the popular instant noodles. Do you know how much lead in your food can harm you?

How much lead in your noodles is safe for your health?

HOW MUCH LEAD CAN ACTUALLY HARM YOU ?

The Supreme Court revived the action suit against Nestle on Thursday by NCDR by questioning the content of lead in their Maggi noodles. The lawyers representing Nestle admitted that the popular product contains lead. However, they argued that the lead content in the noodles was within permissible limits.

They argued that lead is present everywhere and it is unintentionally added to their product, but it is not added in any of the processes intentionally.

How much lead content is actually safe ?

Actually no amount of Lead in blood can be considered as safe. Even very low quantities even as low as 50 ppm (5 mg per deciliter) can lead to health issues in children.

Lead is a highly toxic metal and also a very strong poison. Consuming even small quantities of lead can cause fatal health conditions. It can lead to situations like physical and mental impairment. So, products with lead must be consumed at very much limited amount or must be avoided as much as possible especially children should not consume such products.

Children are most vulnerable to lead poisoning as their brain & nervous system are in development process.

Symptoms of Lead poisoning & Diagnosis

Lead poisoning slowly builds up in body, generally. So, consuming small quantities of lead again and again will eventually lead up to its toxicity.

According to Healthline, some of the symptoms of lead toxicity in adults are abdominal pain, abdominal cramps, aggressive behavious, sleep problems, constipation, irritability, headaches, loss of appetite, fatigue, memory loss and anemia among others.

In children, symptoms can be identified in the form of intellectual disability. For example, a child having behaviour problems, low IQ, poor grades at school, growth delays, etc.

Emergency symptoms in case of a high toxic dose of lead can be severe abdominal pain and cramping, vomiting, muscle weakness, seizures and coma. Lead poisoning can be diagnosed with a blood lead test. 

If these symptoms are seen, you must immediately contact your doctor and take proper medications for same. 

To be safe and healthy avoid regularly having products having lead  present in it does not matter how much lower quantity it is. Since it accumulate in body and repeated exposure may lead to serious health conditions.

Also Read : Consuming artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar ? Study says it may not be effective