Re:FDA seizes Ginseng (was: Mercury in herbal medicines: potentially dangerous)

[Guest guest]

Yikes! Unlike the Harvard study which I feel was completely reasonable

and done without any malice towards traditional medicine, this smells

pretty awful.

Seems like this isn't about the FDA acting in the publics interest, but

yet again special interests (i.e. AMA) out to undermine traditional

medicine with a publicity stunt.

 

Does the FDA monitor produce for pesticides? Anyone know? I wonder

why these guys were targeted.

 

--george

 

On Dec 17, 2004, at 2:40 AM, Renjing Tu wrote:

 

>

>

> FYI

>

> US FDA Initiates Seizure of Ginseng Because of

> Potentially Risky Pesticide Residues

>

> At the request of the Food and Drug Administration

> (FDA), the U.S. District Court for the District of New

> Jersey issued a warrant for the seizure of

> imported ginseng, and held for sale at FCC Products,

> Inc., located in Livingston, N.J. The U.S. Marshals

> Service, accompanied by an FDA investigator, yesterday

> seized the ginseng. The exact amount and extent of

> distribution at this time is unknown, but was probably

> small in scope. Due to the uncertainty of the

> distribution, FDA is issuing a nationwide warning to

> those who may have used this product.

> The bulk and blended ginseng products held at

> FCC Products, Inc., are adulterated under the Federal

> Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because they contain

> pesticide chemical residues that are unsafe. The

> pesticide chemical residues, procymidone and

> quintozene, are deemed unsafe because there has

> been no tolerance established for residues of

> procymidone and quintozene in ginseng. During an

> inspection of FCC Products, Inc., FDA collected

> samples of the firm's ginseng, which the firm uses as

> an ingredient to blend into dietary supplements. FDA

> laboratory analysis determined that the bulk ginseng

> products sampled at FCC Products, Inc., contain

> pesticide chemical residues procymidone and

> quintozene. FDA is responsible for the enforcement of

> pesticide tolerances and food additive regulations. A

> raw agricultural commodity or a processed food or

> feed is deemed to be unsafe and adulterated, and

> subject to FDA enforcement action, if a pesticide

> chemical residue for which no tolerance has been set

> is present in food. FDA is committed to promoting and

> protecting the public health by taking action against

> unsafe products, and against products that make claims

> that are false and misleading. FDA's mission includes

> ensuring the safety or safety and effectiveness of a

> broad spectrum of regulated products, including food,

> human and animal drugs, vaccines, blood products,

> medical devices, devices that emit radiation, and

> cosmetics.

> ####

>

> --- < wrote:

>

>> Hi George & All,

>>

>> George Mandler wrote:

>>> Now on the topic of heavy metals it is what the

>> metal is bound to

>>> that matters. When they do these spectroscopy

>> tests they can only

>>> determine the presence of the metal, not what it

>> is bound to. For

>>> example methyl-mercury is what is poisonous and

>> found in fish etc,

>>> however if it is a mercury salt it probably won't

>> be absorbed and

>>> is a passed out the feces. But the spectroscopy

>> cannot

>>> differentiate between methyl-mercury and a salt

>> form and I'm

>>> surprised it wasn't talked about. So either they

>> felt it wasn't

>>> important or I'm wrong and need to pull out my

>> biochem books. my

>>> $.02 --george

>>

>> George, with respect, I must disagree!

>>

>> Whether deliberately added to herbal forumlas, or

>> present as a contaminant,

>> mercury, MUST be regarded as potentially toxic. MANY

>> chronic conditions in

>> humans and animals are due to low-grade (undiagnosed

>> by conventional

>> methods) Hg poisoning.Low-grade Hg exposure is

>> thought to be one of the

>> causal factors of autism in children - whether from

>> the pregnant mother, or from

>> thiomersal/thiomersol-preserved vaccines.

>>

>> Though different compounds of mercury, and even

>> elemental Hg, undoubtedly

>> have different coefficients of gastrointestinal

>> absorption, even Hg from Hg-

>> amalgam in teeth-fillings can get into the blood and

>> other tissues. See:

>> http://tinyurl.com/3zze9

>>

>> Below are recent abstracts on HgCl and Hg vapour (in

>> dentristry) Hg can be

>> absorbed theough the skin, not to mention the g/i

>> tract. The last abstract

>> estimates the g/i coefficient of absorption of Hg

>> vapour (in dentristry) at circa

>> 10%.

>>

>> J Toxicol Clin Toxicol. 2000;38(7):701-7.

>> Transdermal kinetics of a mercurous

>> chloride beauty cream: an in vitro human skin

>> analysis. Palmer RB, Godwin

>> DA, McKinney PE. Department of Pathology, School of

>> Medicine, University of

>> New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. robp

>> BACKGROUND:

>> Crema de Belleza-Manning is a popular mercurous

>> chloride-containing beauty

>> cream used to smooth and lighten the complexion and

>> treat acne. Hundreds of

>> people in the Southwestern US border states have

>> been identified with elevated

>> (>20 microg/L) urine mercury levels believed to be

>> secondary to using this

>> cream. The kinetic characteristics of percutaneous

>> mercury absorption are

>> incompletely defined. The objective of this study

>> was to determine the

>> transdermal kinetics of two formulations of

>> mercurous chloride from a beauty

>> cream in an in vitro human skin model. METHODS: A

>> proprietary formulation

>> and an aqueous formulation of the beauty cream were

>> studied using modified

>> Franz diffusion cells. Mercury content in the skin

>> samples and the underlying

>> diffusion buffer was determined using atomic

>> absorption spectrophotometry.

>> RESULTS: A rapid initial increase in mercury content

>> both in the skin and the

>> buffer was noted for both formulations. Mercury

>> concentrations in the aqueous

>> samples were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in both

>> the skin and the diffusion

>> buffer compared to parallel samples containing

>> glycerol. CONCLUSIONS:

>> Mercury was readily absorbed through the skin in

>> this in vitro human skin

>> model. The aqueous preparation had a markedly

>> increased rate and extent of

>> mercury absorption relative to the proprietary

>> formulation.PMID: 11192457

>> [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

>>

>> J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1998 Oct;287(1):8-12. DMPS

>> (2,3-dimercaptopropane-1-

>> sulfonate, dimaval) decreases the body burden of

>> mercury in humans exposed

>> to mercurous chloride. Gonzalez-Ramirez D,

>> Zuniga-Charles M, Narro-Juarez

>> A, Molina-Recio Y, Hurlbut KM, Dart RC, Aposhian HV.

>> Department of

>> Pharmacology,, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica del

>> Noreste, Instituto

>> Mexicano del Seguro Social, Monterrey, Mexico. DMPS

>> (2,3-

>> dimercaptopropane-1-sulfonate, Na salt), when used

>> as a challenge test for

>> mercury in workers involved in the production of a

>> calomel skin-bleaching lotion

>> and in direct contact with mercurous chloride,

>> elevated urine levels of mercury.

>> A DMPS treatment regimen was devised and initiated.

>> Three days after the

>> challenge test, DMPS was administered p.o. (400 mg

>> per day) for 8 days,

>> followed by a no-treatment period of five days. A

>> new cycle of DMPS treatment

>> for 7 days was initiated and followed by 5 days

>> without treatment. A third period

>> of treatment was begun for 6 days, followed by a

>> 5-day no-treatment period.

>> The urinary mercury greatly increased during those

>> periods when DMPS was

>> administered (1754, 314, and 173 microgram/24 h for

>> the periods 1, 2 and 3,

>> compared with 106, 48 and 53 microgram/24 h on the

>> corresponding no-

>> treatment periods). One of the workers presented

>> signs of drug intolerance and

>> was discharged after receiving the first cycle of

>> treatment. DMPS treatment

>> was effective in lowering the body burden of mercury

>> and in decreasing the

>> urinary mercury concentration to normal levels.

>> PMID: 9765315 [PubMed -

>> indexed for MEDLINE]

>>

>> Vet Rec. 1997 May 24;140(21):549-52. Poisoning of

>> dairy heifers by mercurous

>> chloride. Simpson VR, Stuart NC, Munro R, Hunt A,

>> Livesey CT. Lasswade

>> Veterinary Laboratory, Penicuick, Midlothian.

>> Mercury poisoning was

>> diagnosed in four dairy heifers, three of which

>> died. The clinical signs were

>> variable and included salivation, excessive thirst,

>> extreme depression and

>> severe diarrhoea. Postmortem examinations revealed

>> inflammation and

>> ulceration of the alimentary tract, pulmonary and

>> cardiac haemorrhages, pallor

>> of the kidney cortices and perirenal oedema. The

>> kidney mercury

>> concentrations were in the range 58 to 91

>> micrograms/g wet tissue. It is

>> believed that the animals were poisoned by the

>> ingestion of soil contaminated

>> with mercurous chloride. PMID: 9185311 [PubMed -

>> indexed for MEDLINE]

>>

>> Environ Res. 2002 Mar;88(3):145-55. Metals and

>> women's health. Vahter M,

>> Berglund M, Akesson A, Liden C. Institute of

>> Environmental Medicine,

>> Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

>> Marie.Vahter There is a lack of

>> information concerning whether environmental-related

>> health effects are more or

>> less prevalent or manifested differently in women

>> compared to men. Previously,

>> most research in the area of toxicology and

>> environmental and occupational

>> health involved male subjects. The present work aims

>> at reviewing exposure

>> and health effects of cadmium, nickel, lead,

>> mercury, and arsenic manifested

>> differently in women than in men. The gender

>> difference in exposure to nickel

>> results in a much higher prevalence of nickel

>> allergy and hand eczema in

>> women than in men. The internal cadmium dose is

>> generally higher in women

>> than in men, due to a higher gastro-intestinal

>> absorption at low iron stores. This

>> was probably one major reason why Itai-itai disease

>> was mainly a woman's

>> disease. Yet, data are sparse regarding the risk for

>> women relative to men to

>> develop cadmium-induced kidney damage in populations

>> exposed to low levels

>> of cadmium. Lead is accumulated mainly in bone and

>> increased endogenous

>> lead exposure has been demonstrated in women during

>> periods of increased

>> bone turnover, e.g., menopause. Both lead and

>> mercury

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