What do you do, when you have turned the house upside down, checked with 3M lead swabs; called the county for an inspection, or hired a lead inspector and Nothing is found?! Na-da. Not a clue where the lead may come from, yet your child has symptoms congruent with lead exposure; testing shows lead in their hair, or routine blood testing made you aware.
When trying to figure out exposures and coming up empty handed in our dwellings...no lead paint, no lead in dust or the bath tub enamel, no lead on water pipe solder, or in water, no lead in soil outside the home, and
no one in the family is into fishing.
Where did this come from? Mom didn't grow up with exposures, still the hyperactive child is not calming down with age, as many well-meaning people try to assure us.
Then it's time to look deeper....pun intended.
Here are some less obvious exposure routes to lead...
Turmeric supplements: https://news.stanford.edu/2019/09/24/lead-found-turmeric/
Root crops like carrots are more likely to be contaminated.
Fruits themselves (even grown in contaminated soils) are often fine. Example: shelling peas.
Old orchards can pose threats decades later since lead persists in the soil. These orchards may be converted for other use like building sites. A home garden in such a location is only safe with soil remediation (ie: removing and replacing topsoil) or raised beds and safe soil from elsewhere.
I firmly believe that making informed decisions is the quickest way to getting the results we desire. Turning as many 'unknown unknowns' (in this case, lead exposures) into known knowns (used to be unknowns but are no longer unknowns) helps us hone in on exposure routes. That allows us to take the necessary steps to end any ongoing exposures.
The anti-inflammatory turmeric we started may be more of an issue than we suspected.
That's why booking an appointment with me includes a thorough review of supplements and diet. The devil is in the detail, as the saying goes.
And over the years, I have learned to look beyond what is obvious.
If it isn't the plates or lead crystal glasses, and the Mardi Gras beads, then what could it be?!? It could even be electronics, if your child likes taking apart electronic appliances to understand their inner circuitry. The possibility is there. Lead solder is cheap and widely used. Electronics aren't generally built to be taken apart by a hobbyist.
If you have questions about your family's particular situation, if ACC is feasible and if so, how to proceed, reach out by booking an appointment.