Will Fear Scare People Away From Eating Chocolate?

Throughout the article, “Is There Lead In Your Chocolate?” By Nadia Kounang, it was made clear that consumers would fear eating chocolate unless they looked further into this situation. After reading this article, consumers will question their decision of eating chocolate all because of nonfactual information. The only way to see past this is to be informed of the actual things that people should fear, such as tobacco use, therefore; consumers should not be scared away from eating chocolate because of the fear of lead.

Will lead really hurt us? Who knows. This article sure does scare people but it does not prove the harm that may come from eating the scarce amount of lead that MAY be in chocolate. “Manufactures say there are only trace amounts of lead in chocolate.” There can be trace amounts of lead in almost anything we eat, why fear there being a trace amount of lead in chocolate? There has been no proof that chocolate has killed anyone, at least the article failed to mention that.

California’s food standards are a lot more strict than those set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This entire article is based upon there being more lead than California considers safe, no other state. This shows bias. What do other states believe? Will the small amounts of lead in chocolate play as a threat to the health of human beings? No one would know this information unless they decide to do more research. Chances are, readers will not do more research, they will read only this article and fear the unnecessary.

Once again, there is no proof of there being lead in chocolate, there is a possibility, but not proof. The article stated, “A California-based consumer advocacy group, believes that some chocolate has more lead than necessary.” They BELIEVE that SOME chocolate has more lead than necessary. If people read this article, they will fear that they will be put into a harmful situation by eating chocolate.

Lead can be found in foods, air, soil, dust and water, not just chocolate. Despite this, Kounang decides to bring in the factor of children. “There is no safe level of lead for children” says Kounang. Of course readers will become more wary on this subject, children have been pulled into the argument. Parents would do anything for their children and their health. The number one thing they would do after reading this article would be to fear the idea of their son or daughter ever eating chocolate again.

Overall, this article creates unnecessary fear within every person who is to read the article. Fear should not be because of an unknown amount of lead within chocolate. There have been no cases mentioned that a person has gotten sick or some type of side effect from eating chocolate that circles back to the lead being the cause. There are other things to fear, fearing the amount of lead in chocolate should not be one of them.