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A potentially cancer-causing metal in children's diets; Native American tribe takes a stand to protect its natural resources.

Worrisome levels of potentially cancer-causing metal found in children’s diets

Young children are being exposed to a potentially cancer-causing heavy metal known as cadmium through many of the foods they eat, often at levels that exceed safety standards, according to a new study. 

Cadmium has been shown to contaminate water, air and crops, including a range of foods considered  healthy that are used in baby food. The study, which was recently published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicity, found that the cumulative average daily levels of cadmium ingested by children were higher than daily cadmium intake levels considered safe by the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

For instance, children between 6 months and 24 months who consumed spinach and rice at least once a week ingested cadmium that exceeded the ATSDR guidelines by up to 200%, the study determined. The authors of the study warned that the findings are particularly concerning because the bodies of young children are still developing, and may be more susceptible to the effects of heavy metal exposure. 

The study comes after a 2021 US Congressional report showed dangerous levels of metals in infant food, prompting the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch a research and action plan to assess the risks of heavy metals in foods. (Read the rest of the story.)

Native American tribe takes a stand to protect its natural resources

MAHNOMEN, Minn. – It’s been centuries since the White Earth tribe migrated west across North America, following an ancestral prophecy to go where “food grows on water.” One of seven Ojibwe bands in Minnesota, White Earth found that prophecy fulfilled along the many shallow clear lakes that lie in the state’s northern forests, where luminous green stalks of wild rice grow in abundance.

The lakes and the magnificent bounty of wild rice still form the spiritual foundation of a culture, economy, and way of life for the tribe, which inhabits the White Earth Reservation that was created in 1867 through a treaty the United States signed with the Mississippi Band of Chippewa Indians.

That way of life is under threat, however, as industrial-sized dairies, hog facilities, and big crop farms are beginning to surround the tribe’s 829,440-acre reservation near the North Dakota border. The agricultural operations bring ruinous nutrient pollution that has been documented in all of Minnesota’s farming counties, and massive groundwater withdrawals for irrigation and livestock.

In response, White Earth Nation is implementing a series of mandatory and enforceable pollution prevention and water conservation measures that challenge the system embraced by states and the federal government for the last half century. (Read the rest of the story.)