this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 30 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The findings have not been peer-reviewed and the author has been convicted of…a lot of crime.

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[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 49 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Wait....US is still doing research?!

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 26 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I mean, it depends what you're willing to call "research".

The testing, conducted by Lead Safe Mama, also found concerning levels of highly toxic arsenic, mercury and cadmium in many brands.

I'm not sure I would put this on the same level as a controlled, reproducible double-blind peer-reviewed study by Harvard and MIT published in a prestigious journal, but I'm sure it's really close. /s

Edit: Ok, so people argue she's at least a little legitimate, but why the fuck can't we use actual scientific institutions anymore? We have a scientific method for a reason. Where's the peer review? Where's the people reproducing her results?

[–] ExtraPartsLeft@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

How do you think we get to the point where a researcher can get funding to do actual peer reviewed research? In the state the USA is in they won't until something like this gets the publics attention.

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Part of the reason the USA has gotten to this state is because we allow unverified sensationalist slop like this to get the public's attention and be used against them. We've already seen 1 bullshit study linking vaccines and autism that is STILL being widely circulated and used to this day to convince people not only that vaccines are bad but that the whole GOVERNMENT is bad. Look at the results.

Now we're going to convince people toothpaste is bad using the same quality of "independent research"?

[–] ExtraPartsLeft@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I did not interpret this to mean toothpaste is bad. All I see is greedy corporations not doing their due diligence in making sure their product safe.

I agree that the reason we've gotten to this state is due in part to sensationalist media using bad research to promote claims that get clicks/views that earn them money.

But I don't think that's the same thing at all as someone paying independent labs to test consumer products for toxins.

There are plenty of sensationalist articles about pseudo-science to get upset over. But someone who's paying for independent testing of consumer products for heavy metals is not it.

[–] Litebit@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

They keep losing their stuff and brain due to lead poisoning, so they have to keep re-searching.

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[–] caffinatedone@lemmy.world 29 points 6 days ago

We can fix this! Quick, destroy the FDA so the problem will never be seen again!

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 65 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I don't dispute her lead findings, but her statement about Hydroxyapatite shows she's willing to give comment on things she knows nothing about.

Hydroxyapatite is extracted from cow bone and added because it allegedly helps teeth absorb calcium, though Rubin said she doubts it does.

Hydroxyapatite is used as an alternative to flouride, as it's able to attach to the enamal and act as a barrier similar to how flouride does.

Research has shown it's less effective than flouride overall (it can't withstand as low a pH/acidity before dissolving), but it's not added to increase calcium absorption, like she claims.

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Tamara Rubin is a grifter with no expertise who bought an XRF gun to use to scan random objects as fodder for her blog where she gets money from affiliate links. Her wikipedia page talks about a few of her financial crimes. I wouldn't worry anything she puts out.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 8 points 6 days ago

Holy cow you weren't kidding, she has been convicted of tons of crimes. Immediately discredited her findings for me

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hydroxyapatite is basically bone without the last calcium ion, which is calcium apatite

Hydroxyapatite is present in bones and teeth; bone is made primarily of HA crystals interspersed in a collagen matrix—65 to 70% of the mass of bone is HA. Similarly HA is 70 to 80% of the mass of dentin and enamel in teeth.

I think you may want to reconsider, it might not be used for calcium absorbtion (that's via preferential binding and transport pathways in the gut lumen), the apatite is absorbed by the collagen matrix for the outer coating, effectively regenerating the tooth.

Flouride is a stronger, but worse version of this (strengthing apatite without the Ca++ ion), though both together could theoretically be optimal, I don't know of any studies looking into this, and we should be wary of making such claims barring evidence.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 10 points 6 days ago (12 children)

I'm not suggesting hydroxyapetite is without merit for dental purposes, it absolutely is useful, and I agree combining it with flouride would likely be optimal (I recall reading a study that seemed to suggest HA can actually remineralize deeper into the tooth than flouride can).

I was just pointing out that the woman in the article didn't seem to know what hydroxyapetite is actually used for, despite trying to seem like a source of knowledge.

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[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 44 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So I'm all for substances to be routinely measured for lead concentration. I wouldn't be surprised if lead and fascism have a link.

But, because of leaded gasoline and widespread use of lead in other products historically we cannot escape 0 lead.

I wouldn't be surprised if you took a plate of food from a randomized selection of restaurants, you would find lead in every meal.

Lead is dense, and leaded gasoline absolutely fucked our planet. We know the safe level is 0.

We cannot say that any measurement of non-zero is worse than what we can ultimately control for. We need to be measuring these things over decades, to verify the amount continues to decrease with the ultimate hope of 0 (though, that's unlikely).

[–] SpongyAneurism@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's no surprise, they find lead in there. Our analytics have become crazy sensitive, we can detect the tiniest amounts of chemicals nowadays.

That's why it's very important to check articles like this one for what actually was found in order to avoid uninformed sensationalizing.

Reading through this article makes you wonder how Washington came up with their regulation for lead levels and why it differs so much from the FDA's standards.

Even if we know, that no amount of lead can be considered 'safe', we have to have a regulation, of what is allowed and what we deem acceptable. Routinely testing products against these standards of course has to happen, otherwise, they'd be pretty useless.

[–] austinfloyd@ttrpg.network 5 points 6 days ago

For me, the crazy takeaway of the article was just how high the acceptable level of lead is for toothpaste (the current FDA limit is 20,000ppb for fluoridated toothpaste).

[–] LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee 32 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Finally a benefit to not brushing my teeth! My ADHD finally gets a win!

/s

[–] ijedi1234@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Now hold still as I apply this giant drill to Number Whatever.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My uncle always used to say that his goal in life is to have all his teeth replaced with implants.

He died at 51 from a heart attack.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I have a single implant. One. I fucking hate it. Not to speak of the dentist because he's fantastic, but the structure of the things drives me nuts.

If anyone's unaware, they don't go into the socket like a normal tooth. There's an anchor, but they're kinda T-shaped and leave a miniscule gap between the "tooth" and the gum. SO MUCH SHIT GETS TRAPPED IN THERE! I carry metal toothpicks with me everywhere ("weapons" according to every security guy ever) because I constantly have to dig shit out.

There's other problems too, but that's the most annoying one.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago (5 children)

They had to stop putting lead into fuel years, and now even lead water pipes are under threat, so they need another way to lower peoples IQs to keep them mallable.

[–] NeilBru@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)
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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

back in my day they even leaded the wine!

that's where the phrase, "get the lead out", became so popular.

invite some friends over for dinner, break out the wine and one of the servants would say, "this wine is vinegar!" and then you'd whip them and scream, "get the lead out!"

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 5 days ago

Don't worry. Chronic underfunding of education coupled with social media means we can save money on expensive lead!

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[–] Surp@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So long story short what adult toothpastes and children's toothpastes are ok to use

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

Rubin said the contamination seems to lie in some ingredients added to toothpaste, including hydroxyapatite, calcium carbonate and bentonite clay.

Several children’s toothpastes, like Dr Brown’s Baby Toothpaste, did not test positive for any metals and did not contain the ingredients in question.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 16 points 6 days ago

So that's why there is a warning on the label about swallowing toothpaste.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

Send directives to retract the word lead from all communications, done

[–] BmeBenji@lemm.ee 13 points 6 days ago

I’m 40% lead and other metals! *klongk klongk*

[–] selkiesidhe@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago

I pay eight dollars for what I assumed was "fancy toothpaste". It's expensive. Good teeth, too bad about the fucking lead poisoning though...

Wtf!

[–] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I think in 100 years our ancestors will find it barbaric that we scrapped our teeth with metal tools and used abrasives to keep them clean instead of having bioengineered bacteria just keep our mouths clean.

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[–] detun3d@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

At the moment if it comes from the US I'm not buying it. 😏

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