[maxerickson]

Uh, the culprit isn't turmeric, it's lead chromate that farmers were putting on turmeric.

For most readers of English, it is not an expected fact that someone would be intentionally adding lead to food.

In the article, the turmeric related lead poisonings were due to turmeric bought at Bangladeshi markets, not processed, packaged spices bought from a grocer.

[fakedang]

In most of South Asia, including India and Bangladesh, we were often taught in school that adding lead paint to turmeric is extremely prevalent (along with a number of other adulteration techniques for other foods). We were also taught various tests we could carry out to test food quality.

If there were elevated levels of lead in a South Asian population , and only them, the first thing any reasonable scientist or detective should have looked at was the lead concentration from turmeric usage. Not lead paint, not lead from water pipes.

[account42]

Yes, but that would be "racist".

[in_cahoots]

But for anyone who knows the Bangladeshi community this isn't a surprise at all. Neither the source nor the way it wakes its way into immigrants diets. Every time my Bengali friends visit Bangladesh they take an empty suitcase to fill with spices, sweets, and the like. The adulteration has been going on for decades.

I feel like the article should have been written from that perspective- an outsider discovering how a different community operates and polices itself- instead of from the perspective of some Western saviors uncovering a new problem.

[rahimnathwani]

Eh? Adulteration has been going on for decades, yet your friends deliberately pack light so they can bring back those contaminated spices?

[in_cahoots]

Cognitive dissonance is a thing, yes. Would you also be surprised to know that some Americans smoke and don't use seatbelts?

Not every immigrant is a twenty something working on a Masters degree or working in the tech industry. Most of the Bengalis I know, especially in the NYC area, are here by sheer luck and determination moreso than formal education. The older ones have survived famine, cyclones, and literal genocide. At that point, trying to convince someone that their favorite spices or sweets that they grew up with for 40+ years may be harmful is pretty difficult.

If anything, getting to know the immigrant community has been enlightening in pointing out my own biases. It's easy to point the finger at someone else because they're a fish out of water. But put me in a different culture (or really just let time pass with the attendant changes in culture and technology) and the same thing would be true for me.

[account42]

Contaminated spices they have grown up with, yes. One of the insidious things about lead poisoning is that low levels are not that apparent when looking at an individual but still have a significant effect - you wouldn't know if you are less intelligent than you would be without exposure.