Heavy Metals in the Wine? Probably but who cares?

I found a very interesting story today on research done in the UK saying that European wines have a high concentration of heavy metals that are dangerous for you. The article of that story can be found here. What makes it most interesting was that it was picked up by all of the wine newsletters I get.

Really, I just can't imagine that whatever they found (if they found anything!) is really dangerous. We are in a world where we are told that simply breathing may cause your lungs to shrivel up and kill you. Consumers have been drinking European wines in the US for a long time, speeded up by the French Paradox. If years and years of drinking these wines has not given anyone heavy metal poisoning yet, I think we'll be ok. A while ago I remember reading an article on trace chemicals being found in the water supplies of major metropolitan cities (and we're talking good stuff like anti-depressents and muscle relaxants in New York and sex enhancement drugs in San Francisco). As far as I can tell that news was met with the equivalent of a big shrug by the average American.

This definitely will not have the slightest effect on my wine purchasing decisions. Although I must say that Slovakia, Macedonia and Serbia are still not high on my list of wines to explore.