The article that mentioned that 20% of herbal and related products sold in an Indian store in Boston were contaminated with various toxins and metals really got my attention. I've always wondered how safe all the herbs and spices we buy are. If you look at any Travelodge and see the lovely urban open-air spice markets, you can see how unclean they are....imagine an outdoor salad bar with a lot of traffic pollutants and no sneeze guards even. Spice buyers go to vast Central markets to bid on the stuff, much of which, by law, is then sprayed with I-don't-know-what when the U.S. I'm guessing that major importers like McCormick might have legal work-arounds to avoid the anti-fungal and other sprays at least. But some stuff is already very contaminated upon arrival here.