You've probably heard recently about there being arsenic in our apple juice. Articles (like the one at the link below) are all over the web after a report was released saying that "recently tested 88 samples of locally purchased apple and grape juices from stores in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. They found that 10-percent of juice samples had arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking water standards", the article is at:
Dr. Drew Article
Arsenic has been in our ecosystem for years and it's known about in the food industry. It's in our juice and water because it's in the ground water and soil that plants are grown in, it's just in the ecosystem... and can't truly be avoided. The important thing is that there is organic and inorganic arsenic, inorganic being the harmful type that can hurt you (organic being basically "harmless", as the FDA puts it). Inorganic arsenic exposure has been found to lead to cancer. Some of the inorganic variety is out there because of pesticides used in the 70's.
Here's what the FDA posted about it on their site:
FDA Notification
For those followers of Dr. Oz, he seems to have started some of the buzz. His website tells of 10% of juices sampled (apple and grape) found 23 parts per billion arsenic in the juice (well above the allowed 10 parts per billion standard for water). Here's the link to his national investigation:
Dr. Oz Campaign
Consumer Reports posted the following article about "Where Apple Juice Comes From":
Consumer Reports