> To mask flawed turmeric, some processors began dusting the roots with lead chromate — an orange-yellow industrial pigment used to color plastics and furniture.
I don't really want lead in my plastic or my furniture either...
In fact, I think there would be a good case for simply banning all mining of lead. Nearly all remaining uses of it (bullets, roof flashing, counterweights, car batteries) seem to still have a pretty high risk of contamination of either the environment or the workers who make or recycle products.
It's used medically, for example for nurses and doctors who work with radioactive tracers; they wear big aprons with lead in it which absorb any radiation that would be ok once in a while but that you don't want exposed to every single day at work.
