Lead limits in calcium supplements, antacids requested in NRDC citizen petition.
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
LEAD LIMITS IN CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTS, ANTACIDS REQUESTED in a citizen petition filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council on Jan. 27. In the petition, NRDC, a national, non-profit environmental group with over 350,000 members, asks FDA to promulgate a regulation setting Good Manufacturing Practices for calcium dietary supplements and carbonate antacid products specifying an upper limit of .5 mcg lead per maximum recommended daily dosage. FDA does not have a mandatory standard for lead in calcium-containing products, but can rely on the 3 ppm lead tolerance level specified by the U.S. Pharmacopeia and the National Academy of Sciences' food chemicals codex to regulate products with the mineral.