Good example of "contamination" discussed in a Boston Globe article I read recently. The "herbal" tea Pai You Guo contains the weight loss drug silbutramine, and a possibly carcinogenic compound, phenolpthalein. Despite an FDA-announced recall the product remains on the shelves at some shops. Apparently certain "herbal" products depend on the hidden presence of pharma drugs which can cause harm, especially if consumers are unaware and/or if the drugs are no longer supposed to be used because of known dangers.

While "evil intent" may be over the top as a description of what's happening with adulteration of medicines manufactured in China, neither is it plausible that this is happening merely by accident or neglect. Time and again, it's been shown that prescription drugs not revealed on the label have been added to China-made supplements/herbal products, and the clear intent is to make them more effective while luring customers with a supposedly "natural" product. Check out the list of drugs found in Chinese supplements as indicated in this report. "...case reports showed that two or more adulterants were present in 14 of 15 Chinese herbal medicines. There was one death reported in these reports, and at least six potentially life threatening events. Suspicion of adulteration was based not only on adverse effects, but suspiciously good efficacy. Chinese herbal medicines may work because of the adulterants. Most people consider alternative therapies to be safe, and often do not mention that they are using them. Given that multiple adulteration of Chinese herbal medicines seems to be common, there is potential for problems, especially when other treatments are being prescribed. Imagine an older patient on NSAID and aspirin additionally taking a Chinese medicine containing indomethacin or phenylbutazone! We simply do not know what the rate of adulteration is. One UK study of 11 herbal creams showed that eight contained dexamethasone at concentrations up to 1.5 mg/gram of cream. In the absence of better information, we should assume that Chinese medicines are adulterated."

I'm in the science profession myself. I've done lots of toxicity work and know quite a bit about contaminates, exposure, risk factors, etc. I too wonder about the things people tend to panic about. For some reason (maybe lack of a solid science education in our schools) our society seems programed to never actually look at the facts or ask critical questions about the issues. It's somehow easier to believe the media hype, panic, and then sue everyone in sight. I think a lot of it is because most people just don't have enough understanding of the basic science and math needed to evaluate risks. So when they watch that news report the sensationalized the danger of lead from garden hoses, most people don't step back and think about it objectively. Rather they throw away their hose and run out and buy a new one that is 'drink-safe'. Never mind that they've likely just made the contamination load in their garden worse because of all the plasticizer that might come from a new hose. Most people don't take the time to understand the issues. It never occurs to them to go look up the original study that says drinking hoses are unsafe. If they did they might find out that the vast majority of hoses, used in a normal manner did not leach any lead. They'd also discover that in order for any amount of lead to be detected the water had to be in contact with the hose for hours or days. And for the most part it lead was leached only from hoses that were full of standing water and were then heated (such as a hose filled with water laying in the hot sun all day). So if you're really worried roll your hose up after each use and store it in the shade. If you do leave it out in the sun, flush the hose by running the water for a few mins and all the lead will be gone. You see news stories where some report went out and bought 10 hose, filled them with water, and then had the water tested. And 8-10 hoses can back with high levels of lead!!! It doesn't occur to most people to think about these studies in real world terms or ask critical questions. These studies never hold up to actual scientific scrutiny. Such as these tests were done on new hoses. A new hose is going to leach out most during it's first uses, so one that has been in use for years might not have any leaching lead. Did they test any hose that had 10g, 100g, 1000g, etc run through them? Also did they rinse the hose out before it was tested? The hose may be coated with some oil and dust left from the manufacturing process and maybe it's that dust the contains the lead. If so the 1st time you use it you'd be removing all the lead. Did they test the source water to determine what levels of lead were preset before the test? Was it tap water (most tap water contains some low levels of lead already)? Did it come from a faucet? What if the pipes and faucet were made out of old material with high levels of lead? Where did they get the hoses from, how many did they test? Is the sample size statistically significant? What about the lab? What type of test did they run (not all tests are the same)? Labs can make mistakes too so if one sample is particularly high or low did the person evaluating the data look for signs of lab error? Even if all of this pans out and it turns out there actually is some lead in the water. What does this mean for your garden? If lead is only present in water that has sat in the hose and lets say the hose holds about 1/2 gallons of water. When you turn your hose on that 1st 1/2 gallon contains lead but then you keep running it and water on 20 gallons into your garden. That 1st sample is not representative of your entire 20 gallons. To test properly you'd need to fill a 20 gallon contain and mix well. Or take a small sample every 5 gallons and mix those. So if you have 1/2 gallon with lead 10 times the safe level and 20 gallons with no lead. Overall your 20.5 gallons is actually 10 time lower than the safe level (the math here is a little oversimplified but you get the idea). So if you need to buy a new hose it makes sense to buy one that is 'drink-safe'. But should you chuck your old hose. Probably not. It really is safe to use. And if you want to be environmentally friendly it is always best to use what you have, buying new and throwing out the old is going to add to landfill space, use a bunch of gasoline to have it shipped to you, use up energy from the manufacture and potentially create more pollutants during manufacture, and so on. That's just he 'lead in the hose' issue. Each new issue has it's own set of facts to consider. Even if there are some risk, what is the cost vs the benefit? What level of risk are you comfortable with? Mostly it's too much work to figure these things out for ourselves so we follow the "media-hype", what all my neighbors are doing, what my organic priestess tell me to, what everyone on that garden forum is saying, etc...

Wow. Thanks for the info. I didn't know this, but am glad I do now. I live near a pond and I would hate to think I've been contributing somehow to its demise. Thanks again.