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posted by martyb on Monday September 04 2017, @03:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-choking-hazzard-here,-either dept.

Ars Technica is reporting on a story where the CDC report that a Homeopathic “healing bracelet” caused lead poisoning in a infant girl

[...] during a routine health screening. Healthcare workers found that the baby was anemic and had a blood lead level of 41 micrograms per deciliter (μg/dL). While no level of lead is known to be safe, the CDC recommends health interventions when a child’s blood lead level reaches 5 μg/dL.

[...] The authorities subsequently homed in on the bracelet, a homemade “homeopathic magnetic hematite healing bracelet.” The baby’s parents said they bought it from an artisan at a local fair and gave it to the baby to wear and mouth to ease teething pain. Small spacer beads on the bracelet (shown) tested positive for lead at a level of 17,000 parts-per-million. The Consumer Product Commission in 2010 set the allowable limit of lead in products intended for children at 100 parts-per-million.

The authors of the report—Drs. Patricia Garcia and Jennifer Haile, lead treatment specialists at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center—noted that the bracelet had no warnings or branding. They added that they couldn’t get the fair’s vendor information and were unable to track down the bracelet’s maker.

Also at Live Science


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  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Monday September 04 2017, @02:28PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Monday September 04 2017, @02:28PM (#563461)

    Did you rtfa? That bracelet doesn't look like if involved any soldering. The lead was in innocuous looking spacer beads probably purchased from a craft store.

    As for homeopathy...well, my favorite "homeopathic" product is Zicam. Its active ingredient is Zinc, which preliminary research suggests really shortens or avoids cold infections. It is labeled as 1x or 2x, meaning diluted that many times. As a homeopathic product it shouldn't work at all; zinc doesn't cause ailments and it is not nearly diluted enough. But as a modern medical product it is a great way to get it on shelves without doing all the expensive follow up research that would be required.

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