That is good information to know. No doubt some folk medicines are dangerous - a very, very small amount given the almost total lack of deaths and relatively small amounts of reports of harm. When such folk medicines are PROVEN to be harmful, then restrictive measures should be taken - as per the bill introduced by Ron Paul.
What you are more likely to see the continued release of stories like this one used to regulate ALL supplements and remedies and make them prove themselves "safe" per the FDA at a prohibitive cost for non-patentable items which will drive them off the market. i suspect that motive is every bit as prominent as any real care about public safety when it comes to such articles.
For comparison's sake, let's look at this folk remedy, however dangerous, and mainstream "safe" and "approved" medications and practices we should be warned about. Per the article, "the use of folk medicine is rooted in generations-old cultural traditions. ayurvedic medicine (which the article implied had unsafe levels of toxins in 1 out of ervey 4 or 5 remedies sampled), for example, originated more than 2,000 years ago in India, where 80 percent of the population uses it."
What it does not state is the the death and serious reactions to FDA approved medications in the United States is many times higher than deaths and reactions to Ayervedic medicine in India, the US or anywhere else. The same is true of all natural and home remedies combines versus mainstream drugs.
The article also states " In 2004, the CDC reported 12 cases of lead poisoning associated with ayurvedic remedies in Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and California. Note that NO deaths were reported. By comparison, common aspirin is was reported responsible for 5,889 ingestion poisonings in 1989 and over 500 actual deaths. Acetominophen (Tylenol, for example) was responsible for 10 times those figures.*
Hells bells, a reported 7,000 patients die each year simply because their doctors did not take the time to properly and legibly fill out their prescriptions!* Where is the similar news coverage, warnings and even outrage?
We do not need dangerous levels of lead or anything else in our remedies or supplements or anything else for that matter. But it should be obvious that we certainly do not need them regulated by the same people who oversee mainstream medicine - and that is exactly what such stories are intended to achieve.