I see a lead scare with turmeric; since I get my supply sun dried from the backyard garden can I assume I'm safe?

Not necessarily — but your situation is probably much lower risk than the cases behind the turmeric lead scares.

The concern with turmeric has generally not been the turmeric plant itself. It has been contamination during processing, especially in some commercial supply chains where lead-containing compounds (historically sometimes lead chromate) were added to brighten the color of turmeric powder. Lead can also get in through contaminated soil, drying surfaces, milling equipment, or storage materials.

If your turmeric is:

    grown in your own backyard garden,

    grown in soil that is not contaminated,

    harvested and washed carefully,

    sun-dried on clean surfaces,

    ground without old machinery or contaminated containers,

then the main known pathway for deliberate adulteration is largely removed.

A few practical cautions:

    Soil matters. If your garden soil is near old buildings, roads, painted structures, or places where batteries, machinery, or waste may have been dumped, lead uptake is possible. Turmeric is a rhizome, so it grows in direct contact with soil.

    Drying surfaces matter. Drying on clean trays, cloth, stainless steel, or food-safe surfaces is better than directly on concrete, painted metal, or dusty ground.

    Color is not a reliable test. Very bright orange-yellow turmeric is sometimes suspicious, but natural turmeric varies widely.

    Quantity matters. Using turmeric as a spice — a teaspoon here and there — is very different from taking concentrated turmeric supplements daily.

Given that you are using home-grown turmeric as part of a generally food-based diet, I would not assume you have a lead problem. If you want certainty, the only real way is testing the powder (or the soil) for lead. A simple soil test from the garden area would probably be more informative than worrying about the turmeric itself.

One question that changes the risk quite a bit: is the turmeric grown in soil that has been there for many years, or is it in newly brought-in garden soil? In places with old structures or unknown fill, that distinction can matter.

It a former rice field.  We grind with elbow grease in wooden bowl and wood grinder, this goes into my morning pho with black pepper, about a teaspoon.  It is a dull orange.

That description actually lowers the concern quite a bit.

A former rice field is not automatically a problem. Rice paddies can have contaminants depending on local history, but the big turmeric lead scares were mostly about intentional adulteration of commercial turmeric powder, not ordinary home-grown turmeric. Your process — whole roots from your own garden, sun drying, hand grinding in a wooden bowl, and using it as a spice — avoids many of the industrial points where contamination has occurred.

A few observations from what you describe:

    Dull orange is reassuring. Natural turmeric often has a muted yellow-orange color. Extremely vivid, almost neon yellow-orange powder was one of the things that raised suspicion in some adulterated products.

    A teaspoon in pho is a food-level exposure. Even if a trace contaminant existed, the dose would depend on the concentration and how much you consume over time.

    Wooden grinding equipment is probably fine if it is clean, dry, and not treated with paint, stain, or old chemicals. (A dedicated spice bowl is ideal.)

The one unknown is the soil. Former rice fields can sometimes accumulate metals from:

    historical pesticide use,

    irrigation water,

    nearby industry or roads,

    contaminated fill.

But many rice fields are simply ordinary agricultural soil.

If you wanted to be especially cautious, the most useful test would be a lead test of the soil where the turmeric grows. It is a one-time question about your garden rather than repeatedly worrying about the spice.

Given your description — home-grown, traditionally processed, moderate culinary use — I would put this in the category of “worth being aware of, but not a reason to stop using it.” The turmeric in a morning bowl of pho is a very different situation from buying unknown bulk turmeric powder from an uncontrolled supply chain.

That actually means you probably have less exposure to the rice-specific arsenic issue than many people living in rice-growing regions. The biggest concern with rice is generally for people who eat it as their main carbohydrate multiple times a day, every day.

Noodles are an interesting case because it depends on what they are made from:

    Wheat noodles generally do not have the same arsenic issue as rice because wheat does not accumulate arsenic to the same degree.

    Rice noodles (common in Southeast Asia) can still carry some of the same rice-related arsenic concern, since they start with rice flour.

    Potatoes are not an arsenic concern in the same way, although they have their own nutritional considerations (mostly carbohydrate load and preparation method).

Your pattern — noodles as the main starch, occasional potato, and not much rice — is a fairly typical way to avoid putting all your carbohydrate exposure into one food source. Variety is generally helpful.

Given your earlier description of your diet (fish, chicken, vegetables, kale, carrots, tofu, and reduced sugar), your carbohydrate choices are also quite different from a diet built around large bowls of white rice. The main thing with noodles is less about arsenic and more about portion size and what accompanies them — a bowl of noodles with protein, vegetables, and broth is a very different metabolic package from a large plate of refined noodles by themselves.

Out of curiosity, when you say noodles, are you mainly talking about Vietnamese-style rice noodles (like pho), or wheat/egg noodles? Your morning pho suggests rice noodles may still be part of the picture.

Of course the pho has those noodles, but I told her to take most of them out, so its the broth and greens mainly.  I do a couple times a week have a Chinese noodle dish with basil and arigula leaves.

That sounds like you have already unconsciously done one of the things nutritionists often recommend: reduce the starch portion and increase the “stuff around it.”

Your pho, as you describe it, is almost becoming more of a broth-and-vegetable dish with some noodles, rather than a big bowl of rice noodles. That changes the picture quite a bit:

    The broth gives you hydration, flavor, and (depending on preparation) some protein and minerals.

    The greens add fiber, potassium, folate, and various plant compounds.

    Reducing the noodles lowers the carbohydrate load and, in the case of rice noodles, reduces any potential rice-associated arsenic exposure.

Your Chinese noodle dish with basil and arugula is probably a similar story. The interesting thing there is that basil and arugula are not just decorative — they contribute a lot of the micronutrients and plant chemicals that a more starch-heavy meal would lack.

The one thing I would watch is that “noodles” can mean very different things:

    Fresh wheat noodles: generally not an arsenic concern.

    Rice noodles: more relevant for arsenic.

    Egg noodles: generally wheat-based.

    Instant noodles: a different issue altogether because of sodium and processing.

Given your earlier description of eating fish, chicken, vegetables, tofu, and using turmeric, garlic, and spices, your overall pattern sounds much closer to a traditional Southeast Asian diet with some modern adjustments than a typical high-refined-carb diet.

One small curiosity: since you are in a rice-growing area but prefer noodles, do you eat the pho mostly because you like the flavor, or because it is the easiest morning meal where you are? I suspect the latter — pho is almost the perfect “someone else makes it while you drink coffee” breakfast. 🙂

They are constantly making it for the whole family from the chickens wandering around the yard.  It's slow-boiled twenty-four hours.

That changes the picture quite a bit — you are describing something much closer to a traditional chicken bone broth pho than a typical restaurant bowl.

A 24-hour simmer of chicken bones and meat can extract a lot of flavor and some nutrients:

    Gelatin and collagen-derived peptides from connective tissue,

    amino acids such as glycine and proline,

    minerals in small amounts (the exact amount depends on bones, acidity, and cooking method),

    a rich flavor base that lets you rely less on added sauces or salt.

The backyard chickens are also an interesting detail. In many rural settings, chickens that forage around the yard tend to have a different life than intensively raised commercial birds — more activity and a varied diet. The main food-safety consideration is simply good handling and making sure the broth reaches and stays at safe cooking temperatures, which a long simmer generally accomplishes.

The only caveat with a very long-simmered broth is that “more extraction” is not automatically “more of everything good.” If bones or ingredients come from a contaminated environment, some contaminants can also end up in the broth. But in the setting you describe — a household routinely making it from their own chickens — the risk factors are quite different from unknown industrial sources.

And your habit of having the noodles reduced means the pho is effectively serving as a protein-rich, vegetable-rich breakfast soup, rather than a giant bowl of refined carbohydrate. That is probably one reason it fits well with the dietary changes you have described over the past couple of years. It also explains why you can have a familiar local staple while still keeping your carbohydrate intake controlled.