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CALIFORNIA
Effort to remove lead from Mexican treats
Candies, chiles, dried grasshoppers can poison children
- Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 15, 2006



One way Mexicans living in California maintain their cultural roots is snacking on treats from home -- tamarind candies, lollipops dipped in chile powder and, among Oaxacans, dried grasshoppers tossed with lime, garlic, chiles and salt.

But those cherished Mexican treats are poisoning the children who snack on them because they contain astronomical levels of lead, a metal that can lower IQ, stunt growth, damage kidneys, cause seizures and kill its victims.

The candies, grasshoppers and other items containing lead have been trickling into the United States for at least 10 years as Latino immigration and globalization have increased. That's brought the biggest outbreak of lead poisoning in three decades, alarming doctors and public health officials who have launched an aggressive campaign to warn Latinos in the Bay Area and beyond to the problem.

"We want to be able to eat these candies -- they're our favorites -- but without the lead. It's a huge concern for the Latino community because the candy is everywhere," said Leticia Ayala, director of Environmental Health Coalition, a San Diego nonprofit that has joined Alameda County, the state attorney general and the Los Angeles city attorney in suing the candy manufacturers.

The scale of the epidemic is staggering. At least 75 percent of new cases of lead poisoning in California are among Latino children, according to state figures. In counties with large Latino populations -- such as Alameda, Los Angeles and San Diego -- the number is closer to 90 percent, Ayala said.

Most of the affected kids ingest lead from candy, chile seasoning and paint chips. Old paint remains the leading cause of lead poisoning in the United States, but health experts have seen a dramatic rise in lead poisoning caused by other means.

"In the past, lead poisoning was mostly associated with lead-based paint, but now we're seeing new sources," said Dr. Margaret Handley, an epidemiologist in UCSF's Department of Family and Community Medicine. She is leading a study of lead poisoning among Oaxacans in the Monterey County community of Seaside, and found a link between lead poisoning and grasshoppers.

Candies such as Chaca Chaca, Vera Mango, Super Lucas and Bolorindo can contain lead levels reaching 12 micrograms per piece, twice the amount the federal Food and Drug Administration considers dangerous for daily ingestion.

But walk into many groceries, even big chains, and you're likely to find the toxic treats.

Not all Mexican candies contain lead, and candies with identical labels could have widely varied amounts of lead, depending upon the factory in which it was made and the circumstances under which it was packaged. In some cases, the candy is lead-free, but the wrapper has lead.

Grasshoppers are even more lethal. Kids eat them by the handful, ingesting as much as 2,300 micrograms of lead at a time.

Just 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood can permanently lower a child's IQ by four to five points, according to Maricela Narvaez-Foster of Alameda County's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. Lead poisoning is hard to detect because its initial symptoms -- irritability, fatigue and weight loss -- often are attributed to other causes.

Adults can suffer lead poisoning, but kids are most vulnerable.

About 440,000 children in the United States -- including more than 13,000 in California -- younger than 6 have lead poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

State and local health departments have been warning people about grasshoppers and Mexican candy since they first noticed the increase in lead poisoning about four years ago.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill last month banning the sale of tainted candy and wants to work with Mexican officials to "tackle the problem at its source."

"The problem is that you shouldn't have any lead in candy," said Victoria Harris, an aide to Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, who wrote the bill. "Kids can get lead poisoning from a lot of sources, but if we can take one thing out of the equation, we need to do it."

Candy manufacturers lobbied against the bill, arguing that the lead levels weren't high enough to warrant concern. Many candy companies have been cleaning their facilities and trying to reduce the lead levels, Ayala and Narvaez-Foster said.

The lawsuit filed in 2004 by Alameda County, the Los Angeles city attorney and the state attorney general demands that the candy makers eradicate lead from their factories and label any candies that contain the substance. It cites Proposition 65, which requires manufacturers to warn the public about potentially carcinogenic products.

Locally, public health workers visit schools to talk to parents, kids and teachers about the hazards of lead and possible sources; talk to shopkeepers about stocking lead-free products; and staff Latino festivals like Dia de los Muertos to warn kids and parents about tainted candy.

In Oakland's mostly Latino Fruitvale district, the effort appears to be working. Many stores still carry the tainted candies, but fewer than at this time last year, said David Crosby of the Alameda County lead poisoning prevention program. Several shopkeepers said they dropped the poisonous treats after learning of the risk.

"We don't have Super Lucas anymore because of the lead. There's some kind of problem -- it's a risk for the kids," said Rafael Hernandez, owner of Carniceria Hernandez on International Boulevard. "We stay away from that."

At Foodvale market, owner Ahmad Qasem had stopped stocking most of the dubious candy, but was heartbroken to see that tamarind candies have to go.

"That's pretty good stuff. I'd hate to get it out of here," he said. "I don't sell much of it, though. If it's selling, it's me who's eating it."

Public health officials say the campaign is working, but there's still a way to go. It can be hard getting kids to part with the beloved treats.

"Food is a core part of our cultural identity," said UC Davis Professor James Grieshop, who studies Oaxacan immigrants. "It's like us when we travel with our Peet's coffee. You can get good coffee in other places, but it's just not the same. That's how it is with the grasshoppers and other snacks."

The United States banned lead from paint and gasoline in the 1970s, but there's still plenty of lead-based paint on older homes.

But gasoline, paint and other items containing lead remain legal and common in Mexico.

It appears in ceramics, in candy and wrappers, in chile powder and even in the water. One particularly potent -- and especially troubling -- source is a remedy for colicky babies that's almost pure lead. Parents feed it to infants by the spoonful.

No one's sure why or how the grasshoppers have become such potent carriers of lead. Oaxaca, one of Mexico's poorest states, is rife with factories, contaminated water and an aging infrastructure that includes lead pipes. The grasshoppers could absorb the lead from a host of sources.

In any case, the insects have long been a favorite snack in the region. They're gathered after a harvest, dried or fried and munched plain or seasoned. Some are even dipped in chocolate.

They're sold in bags and eaten like popcorn. They're often packaged by relatives in Oaxaca and delivered in boxes or suitcases to the United States through an informal network of friends and neighbors traveling between the two countries.

The grasshoppers are available in some farmers' markets throughout the Bay Area, and at flea markets such as the Coliseum Flea Market in Oakland.

Public health workers have tried attacking the problem in Mexico, with limited success. In many impoverished villages, residents have more immediate health concerns, such as giardia, rotting teeth and eye problems, said Narvaez-Foster.

It's also a challenge convincing people to give up the snacks they've enjoyed for generations -- especially if the treats were prepared by a relative.

"You just have to keep repeating the message over and over," said Narvaez-Foster. "It's the only way to get through."

E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.