Re: I appreciate what you're saying DQ, but...

Ok - gotcha.  Just one thing - do realize that 50th percentile is not necessarily something that is unhealthy which some people settle for.  ALL minerals, including so-called heavy metals, are necessary in SOME amount for optimum health, so chances are that very low percentiles would be unhealthy too.

Rather than just knowing percentiles, it would be much more important to know actual levels that were considered unhealthy on both the high and low end.  Percentiles can be very misleading - you could have a very steep bell curve where the difference between the 40th and the 60th percentiles was hardly significant.

It might be the case that even percentiles reaching into and above the 70's were not considered to be unhealthy.  On the other hand, it could be that most of the population has unhealthy amounts of metal contamination and that healthy levels were only in the low percentiles.  Again, you gotta know what the actual amounts measured mean in terms of more than just percentiles.

DQ