People often have concerns about the contaminants in copper sulfate. We are not concerned, and this article explains why not. In sum, copper detoxes millions of times more lead than is contained in copper sulfate.
We recommend getting 99% to 99.9% pure copper sulfate pentahydrate.
25% “contained” copper in copper sulfate is similarly 99% pure, because the rest is the sulfate and the water (penta (5) hydrate (water).
Most of the remaining 1% or 0.1% is not toxic. Most of the 1% is copper oxide, which is also used as a copper supplement, and was actually the historic choice of Radmacher who used copper oxide to heal people in the 1850’s.
Contaminants are measured in “ppm”. What is ppm? Parts Per Million. This is also expressed either as micrograms per gram, or mg per kilo, or mg per liter or some other ratio of a weight that is a million times smaller than the dividing weight.
1% in ppm is 10,000 ppm, or parts per million. So, if we look at the contaminants below in ppm, we add up all the other ppm numbers. They are not close to 10,000, not close to 1%, meaning that copper oxide (most of the 1%, or 10,000 parts per million) is not even listed as a contaminant.
Example concern, from:
https://oldbridgechem.com/copper-sulfate-pentahydrate-fine/
Copper (Cu): 25.2% minimum
Cu Sulfate Pentahydrate: 99% minimum
Lead (Pb): 25 ppm maximum
Iron (Fe): 250 ppm maximum
Cadmium (Cd): 3 ppm maximum
Arsenic (As): 2 ppm maximum
Chromium (Cr): 25 ppm maximum
Antimony (Sb): 3 ppm maximum
Mesh – Fine Crystals: 100 – 30 mesh
Neither 250 ppm iron nor 25 ppm chromium are toxins, those are nutrients.
Toxins of concern: Lead 25 ppm, Cadmium 3 ppm, Arsenic 2 ppm, Antimony 3 ppm.
Total toxins: 33 ppm.
10,000 ppm is 1%. The toxins are 0.3% of 1%. Nearly “nothing” of “nothing”. It’s negligible.
The toxins are the stuff in the earth that sticks to copper, and hardest to remove. They are also the things that copper detoxes, since this 99.997% clean copper pentahydrate/copper oxide will bind to them in the body and remove them.
There is almost nothing this pure in the entire world.
99.9% is also “food grade pure” and “pharmaceutical pure”.
In fact, food itself often has higher lead levels than copper sulfate.
The former levels of lead in baby food was 43 mcg per day!
Source:
https://www.fda.gov/food/environmental-contaminants-food/lead-food-foodwares-and-dietary-supplements
The 25 ppm lead in copper sulfate is 25 parts per million. There are 1000 mcg in 1 mg. A millionth is 1 thousandth of a thousanth.
So, how many mcg lead are there in 1 mg of copper in copper sulfate? It’s well below zero mcg. 0.002 mcg lead per mg of copper.
So babies are getting 40,000 times more lead in their normal dietary exposure than there are in 1 mg of copper sulfate.
Amounts matter. And the amount of lead in 99% pure copper sulfate, thus does not matter.
Pure gold or silver is only 99.9% pure. Those in the gold industry feel that if you put a fingerprint on a 99.99% coin, it suddenly becomes 99.9%, and there really is no such purity greater than 99.9% pure.
The reason why copper sulfate becomes so pure is that it forms into crystals. The crystal formation process removes impurities.
You can further purify your own crystals by following instructions here, and turn 88% pure copper sulfate into 99.9% pure copper sulfate: Instructions here: https://crystalverse.com/purifying-copper-sulfate/
Copper detoxes lead. What is bad is not the super tiny lead in copper sulfate, it’s lead in your body. Most people have about the same amount of lead in the body as copper, 70 mg of each.
The amount of lead in the body is millions of times more than the negligible amount of lead in copper sulfate.
70 mg lead in the body is 70,000 mcg lead.
The amount of lead in copper sulfate is .002 mcg/mg. So we have to move to nanograms.
2 nanograms of lead in copper sulfate, in 1 mg, vs 70,000,000 nanograms of lead in the average person.
The average human is only alive for 28,105 days or 77 years. 2 nanograms a day, assuming copper did not detox it, but was a source, would be 56,210 nanograms over a lifetime, representing less than 1/1300th of the average person’s exposure.
But copper detoxes lead!
The lead in copper sulfate cannot poison you, because the copper sulfate will be removing far more lead out of the body than it will be bringing in, because millions of times more will be coming out than going in.
How are you going to remove lead from the body?
Take copper! Because copper, zinc, and selenium detox lead.