The existing food laws in many countries prohibit the inclusion of most of the trace elements into food, but despite these laws considerable quantities of trace elements are brought into food by insecticides. In the USA the tolerance levels include highly toxic lead in 16 fruit and vegetable products, arsenic in 26, fluorine in 28, and antimony in 2. The presence of the trace element copper has been admitted in more than a hundred agricultural or horticultural products in the USA; bromide in 138 products including cereals, zinc in 71, and tin in one. In other countries the so-called trace elements are also admitted, with the occasional exception of lead, arsenic, antimony and fluorine.