[scottlamb]

That seems not entirely persuasive. In particular:

> As for “lead”, this is from pesticides or private aviation. That said, cocoa pods are thick and it is questionable how much of this actually gets into your final product given the thick skin of the cocoa pod.

The commenter might have been discussing a different study, but this one appears to have tested the final product. If it found lead, people are eating lead.

[hammock]

I saw that. I’m not sure it invalidates the rest of the comment

[scottlamb]

The rest of the comment is just not what I care about. They're telling me the companies raising the alarm about heavy metals are doing so out of commercial interest. Okay, but that's just an ad hominem argument. It doesn't mean they're wrong.

I'd rather hear "actually, these levels of cadmium, arsenic, and lead are well within safe limits unless you're eating nothing but chocolate all day" (with matching data of course), which would better reassure me about the fancy South American organic chocolates. And/or if the commenter is trying to say that the more mass-produced West African conventional chocolates are worse, what are the specific health dangers (to the workers, apparently) posed by their pesticides that I should actually be concerned about?