Alarmingly High Levels of Lead in Calcium Supplements: Pb Content per Serving Up to 18x Over "Acceptable Levels".
Image 1: You better pick the right source of calcium: healthy milk / dairy vs. lead poisoned pills from your local pharmacy or supermarket - you still have the choice. This, I can assure you, is a " SuppVersity News ", i.e. something you will not read on the major news portals, simply because there is too much money at stake in the 3billion $ market for calcium supplements (figure according to January 2008 edition of "Heartwire") - money a huge part of which is spent by Novartis & Co to advertise their products to consumers from all age groups, regardless of the individuals' dietary calcium intake; and that despite accumulating evidence for an association of supplemental calcium intake and heart disease (for one of the latest reviews cf. Bolland. 2011 )! A very recent study published in the Journal of Biological Trace Element Research ( Rehman. 2011 ) does yet cast another, even darker shadow onto the "healthy" white chalk tabs... What? ...