(Natural News) In a devastating example of what can go wrong when people buy goods from unreliable sources, it has been revealed that a teething bracelet recently left a Connecticut baby with life-threatening lead poisoning.
The product, which was marketed as a “magnetic hematite healing bracelet”, contained beads with an unbelievable 17,000 parts per million of lead; the maximum safe level as outlined by the Consumer Product Safety Commission is 100.
The nine-month-old was found to have a blood level of lead measuring 41 micrograms after a routine health screening; levels higher than five are considered abnormal. At first, authorities believed the baby’s lead poisoning must have come from peeling paint in her house, but it was later discovered that such paint was out of her reach and her siblings, aged three and five, had blood lead levels lower than three micrograms.
The bracelet was purchased at a local artisan market stall in Manchester, Connecticut. Her parents gave it to her because they believed it would help soothe her teething pain. The bracelet, which contains tiny beads that seem to render it unsuitable to give to small children because of the potential choking hazard, consists of hematite beads set apart by spacer beads that it turns out were made of lead.
