A medical investigation of chronic lead poisoning in a woman, who gave birth at an Adelaide hospital in Australia, has found it was caused by imported herbal tablets, reports ABC Online.
In a report in this week's Medical Journal of Australia the team noted that the baby was born with the highest lead levels ever recorded in a surviving baby.
Dr Jim Fitzgerald, a toxicologist from the South Australian Department of Human Services, said the source of the lead was finally traced to herbal tablets imported from India.
"We looked at the medication that the woman had been taking and we found very high levels of lead and also some mercury present and we followed that up by contacting the doctor in India, who had prescribed the medication. Through an interpreter he indicated that the tablets shouldn't have contained any heavy metals," Fitzgerald told the news service.