Sixth-grader opens lid for FDA investigation

FDA Consumer, Sept-Oct, 1997 by Paula Kurtzweil

When 13-year-old Cason Schmit of Oakland, Calif., began work on his sixth-grade science project, his main goal was to win a blue ribbon. But he got much more, including national exposure, a job for his college-age brother, and a chance to protect public health by sparking an FDA investigation.

Earlier this year, investigators with FDA's San Francisco district office confirmed Schmit's findings of lead-soldered canned food on some area retail shelves, even though FDA had banned the cans for food use two years ago an required their removal from commerce by June 1996.

Most of the San Francisco-area store found with illegal lead-soldered cans, imported mainly from southeastern Asia, were small ethnic groceries specializing in imported foods. Almost all of the cans have since been removed from store shelves, according to Richard Jacobs, Ph.D., a research chemist and metal specialist in FDA's San Francisco district office who participated in the inspections.

Lead is a known metabolic poison that can damage the kidneys and liver and the nervous, reproductive, cardiovascular, immune, and gastrointestinal systems. It is particularly damaging in children, where, among other things, it can impede intellectual development. Extremely high levels of lead in the body can cause death.

Lead-soldered cans pose a risk because the lead seeps into the food. Until November 1991, when U.S. manufacturers voluntarily stopped producing lead-soldered cans, 14 to 45 percent of lead in food came from these types of cans. In 1995, FDA imposed a mandatory ban that covered not only U.S.-produced canned goods but imported canned food, as well. Many countries still make lead-soldered cans for food use.

Schmit's sixth-grade project got its start during his fourth-grade year, when he came across a news story about FDA's impending ban. For his fourth-grade science project, he decided to see whether he could find lead-soldered cans on Oakland store shelves. He scouted four stores looking for suspect cans with thick wide seams and, sometimes, solder smears.

He ended up buying six suspect cans from two stores. At home, he tested them, using one of several commercial home lead test kits modeled after a lead test developed by FDA, and found that the cans were indeed lead soldered.

His sixth-grade science project updated and expanded the earlier one. Last January, he revisited the two stores where he had previously found lead-soldered canned food. He did not find any lead-soldered cans at one of the stores but found 10 lead-soldered cans -- six more than he had found two years earlier -- on the shelves of the other store.

With help from his mother, Schmit arranged for a private laboratory to help him test samples of food from the lead-soldered cans. The food samples tested positive for lead.

These findings prompted Schmit in February to contact county and state health authorities, as well as FDA. "I [wanted] to get as many people aware of this health hazard [as possible]," he said. "I had a responsibility to let people know."

Impressed with the quality of Schmit's research and concerned about his findings, FDA, in March, sent four teams of investigators to check out smaller-stores specializing in imported foods in Oakland, Berkeley, South San Francisco, and San Francisco. These cities have large ethnic populations served by a number of what Jacobs referred to as "mom-and-pop operations."

The teams visited 24 stores, most of which sold Chinese, Vietnamese, Philippine, or Korean foods. A few specialized in Central and Eastern European food.

The investigators examined thousands of different canned products. All but one proprietor willingly handed over suspect cans for FDA laboratory analysis. The remaining proprietor told investigators they would have to pay for the cans, which they did.

According to Jacobs, the four teams collected "thousands" of suspect products, 64 of which tested positive for lead in the side seam. The Oakland team, which visited five stores, examined 818 cans, 47 (6 percent) of which tested positive for lead-soldered seams.

"Except for a few cases, most of the canned goods that tested positive for lead appeared to be quite old, perhaps manufactured substantially before the prohibition [on lead-soldered cans]," Jacobs said.

According to the labels, most of the canned goods came from China and Taiwan. Other countries of origin included Thailand, India, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Canada.

During the search for lead-soldered cans, investigators also came across a number of swollen, leaky cans and spotted rodent droppings, urine stains, and other signs of filth around the cans. "There were really some outrageous conditions," Jacobs said. "I almost got sick in the store."

FDA investigators brought their findings to store owners' attention. In many cases, Jacobs said, store owners were not aware of the ban on lead-soldered cans. Most agreed to remove and destroy illegal products, Jacobs said.

Many of the store owners also appeared unfamiliar with the thick wide seams and solder smears that indicate a can is soldered shut with lead. So investigators instructed store owners on what to look for.