Food Safety: Heavy Metals Poisoning

As I have always maintained, food is essential to maintain human health. But food can also be a vehicle of a substance that can end a life. Some of these toxic substances are within the foods themselves, while others are external, and get introduced unintentionally, for example, heavy metals in the environment. Lead is one such metal. Lead was a very important metal during the Industrial Revolution and is associated with items around the house: pipes, plumbing materials, batteries, paints, and even cosmetics. It was a part of gasoline for a long time. Consumers who drive become familiar with lead-free petrol. Why lead-free? Do we ever ask? Then we have had paint makers stop using lead. Unfortunately, heavy metals poisoning cannot be reversed, and based on severity leads to diminished mental ability and even death. For this, it is no wonder that every so often stories of lead poisoning come up. Because of its adverse effects on human health and the environment, usage of lead has been reduced. Heavy metals are metalic elements whose density is higher than that of water even as much as five times.