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Toothpaste widely contaminated with lead and other metals, US research finds
(www.theguardian.com)
is there anything in this country that isn't giving me a disease?
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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Gonna say no seeing as even our drinking water contains microplastic.
for those who aren't clicking the article, they annoyingly don't show the numbers, but here are the regulatory levels mentioned:
Federal Baby Food lead limits: 10 parts per billion.
California Baby Food lead limits: 6 parts per billion.
FDA Toothpaste lead limit: 10,000 ppb for flouride-free and 20,000 ppb for flouride toothpaste
None of the tested toothpastes exceeded the FDA limits
Washington state enacted a 1,000 part per billion law and several toothpastes exceeded that limit
Fun fact, the ingredient hydroxyapatite in toothpaste comes from cow bones 
This site is ruining me, my brain went to pigpoopballs instead of parts per billion while reading ppb
So the highest was about 8 ppm. That doesn't really alarm me.
I used to design and perform trace metal assays on incoming raw materials for a factory that made supplements out of powdered botanicals. A typical specification would say "no more than 20 ppm lead". Soil naturally has around 10 ppm lead, so it ends up in practically every plant.
Also think about the doses involved here. How much toothpaste do you consume (swallow) each day. A couple milligrams? Now compare it to the amount food you consume.
Toothpaste would be one of my last concerns.
It does make me question the common advice not to rinse out after brushing though.
Could rinse with mouth wash work. I assume, perhaps naively, it's less likely to have lead, and it would keep the fluoride present.
Mouthwash has a much lower fluoride content than toothpaste, so using mouthwash is still removing the fluoride that brushing applied to your teeth. Though I’m not an expert on this, I’m sure there are studies already comparing these two methods.
Oh, God, that's fucking depressing. I hate capitalism.
My toothpaste I've used for years is in the red and other toothpastes are even worse.
fellow spy kids toothpaste user I see!
Honestly, the presence of so many toothpastes for kids is even more angering.
I don't think adults should consume lead either, obviously, but the lack of care capitalists have for kids is just so fucking sickening and makes me so angry. I'll just leave it at that.
Check toothpaste ingredients for:
- bentonite clay
- hydroxyapatite
- calcium carbonate (baking soda)
Bentonite clay being the worst offender. Tested toothpastes without those 3 all came out with undetectable levels of the heavy metals.
What's wrong with calcium carbonate? I know if you use it by itself it can cause spots that are whiter than others on teeth, but ingesting it in small amounts it isn't bad I don't think, I use it for heartburn(as in just baking soda mixed with water, but even the commercial antacid tablets contain calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate) and that is much more than you'd get from toothpaste
Probably how it's mined from limestone and similar deposits. They're probably not checking or filtering it from lead-adjacent sources or something.
The lead is stored in the luxury bones 
Having 1 luxury bone replaced with an implant is costing me $5,000 with "insurance". Gee why doesn't evilphd666 take more vacation time?
My life-long textural aversion to the stuff was secretly just spidey-sense all along!