Prose-style & consumer-language sweep — 2026-06-02
Counts: P1 0 · P2 7 · P3 17. Report-only by the sweep. Editor disposition appended below.
Editor disposition (Opus, 2026-06-02): All 17 P3 findings verified in context and applied (em dashes → commas/colons/parentheses; three mid-sentence bolds removed on mercury-methyl.md:34). Three of those used commas rather than the suggested parentheses to avoid nesting inside existing parenthetical citations (lead.md:147, mercury-methyl.md:80, seaweed.md:98). All 7 P2 findings were overridden, not applied:
- arsenic.md:122-126, cadmium.md:95-102, mercury-methyl.md:127-132 (bullets → prose): legitimate bullet lists per writing-style. Each is a parallel list of discrete items opening with a definition label (genes, high-exposure foods, open questions); the analytical argument is carried by the surrounding prose, so the “develop the argument” test for illegitimate bullets is not met. Converting claim- and citation-dense lists to prose for marginal register gain risks dropping an anchor. Left as bullets.
- mercury-methyl.md:128 “small but suggestive”: out of scope. It characterizes the evidence base, not consumer risk magnitude. The qualifier check targets consumer-facing risk/contamination language; this is normal scientific hedging. Left.
- chocolate.md:111 “minimal cadmium”: mechanistically anchored in the same sentence (white chocolate “contains cocoa butter but not cocoa solids,” and the preceding sentences establish that the solids carry the Cd). Defensible. Left.
- seaweed.md:94 “orders of magnitude above”: the seaweed value is anchored (5-80 mg/kg dw); supplying a terrestrial-plant baseline requires a source number not on the page, which would be fabrication. Left.
- seaweed.md:123 “negligible processing-driven change”: a real gap, but the fix is a sourcing task (cite or cut), not a style edit. Routed to synthesis rather than fixed here.
Calibration fed back into prose-style-sweep: the qualifier check stays scoped to consumer-facing risk magnitude (not evidence-quality hedges), and definition-label lists of discrete named items count as legitimate catalogs even in consumer/mechanism sections.
Pages scanned (23): wiki/metals/ — aluminum, arsenic-total, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, chromium-hexavalent, lead, manganese, mercury-methyl, mercury-total, mercury, nickel, organotins, tin-inorganic, zinc (15 pages); wiki/ingredients/ — apple-juice, carrot, chocolate, cocoa, rice, seaweed, spinach, sweet-potato (8 pages). One scaffold skipped: wiki/metals/arsenic-inorganic.md.
Next run resumes at wiki/ingredients/tuna.md (or the first unswept file alphabetically after spinach.md).
P1 — consumer safe/dangerous without anchor
No P1 findings in this batch. The lead, arsenic, and cadmium pages use “no safe level” or “safe daily intake” exclusively in denial-of-safety framings (“there is no safe blood lead level for children”), which is correct epistemic posture, not unanchored reassurance.
P2 — bullets-in-prose & other qualifiers
| Page | Line | Offending text | Why | Suggested fix | Claim-adjacent? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arsenic.md | 122–126 | Bullet list: - **ars operon** ..., - **arsM ...**, - **aioAB and arxAB ...**, - **arrAB ...**, - **Thiolation** ... | Five-item bullet list explaining microbial arsenic-transformation mechanisms (efflux operons, methyltransferases, oxidases, reductases, thiolation). Task rule: mechanism explanations must be prose with connective tissue. Bold labels at bullet starts are definition labels (OK), but the format itself is the violation. | Rewrite as a prose paragraph preserving the five pathway descriptions with connective transitions (e.g., “The ars operon … acts as an efflux system … In parallel, arsM … methylates iAs … while aioAB and arxAB oxidize …”). | ⚠ yes — mechanism statements include contested claims (methylation paradox, trivalent-intermediate toxicity) that must remain accurate |
| cadmium.md | 95–102 | Bullet list: six items listing “foods and behaviors that materially raise an individual’s cadmium exposure above the population average” | Consumer-facing risk explanation (<!-- audience: consumer -->) delivered as bullets. Each item contains quantitative anchors so the qualifier language within is fine, but the bullets-in-consumer-risk-explanation rule requires prose. | Rewrite as a prose paragraph opening “The foods and behaviors that materially raise an individual’s cadmium exposure above the population average are, in rough order of impact: regular consumption of bivalve molluscs (placing regular consumers at approximately twice the EFSA mean), wild mushrooms (similarly elevated) …” | ⚠ yes — quantitative comparisons (twofold, 12 µg/kg b.w./month) embedded in bullets must survive intact |
| mercury-methyl.md | 127–132 | Bullet list: - **Cardiovascular MeHg effects.** Some cohort studies …, - **Thyroid cancer and MeHg.** … the evidence base is small but suggestive., - **Climate-change projection robustness outside China.** …, - **Selenium-MeHg quantitative risk modulation.** …, - **Microbiome-mediated MeHg modulation.** …, - **PUFA-MeHg risk-benefit quantification.** … | Six open-question items under “Several MeHg-toxicology and -exposure questions remain active research areas.” Each bullet contains a mini-synthesis statement (“remains contested,” “the evidence base is small but suggestive”). Task rule: synthesis paragraphs must be prose. Bold labels at start of each bullet are definition labels (OK per the rule), but each extends into synthesis-level claims that need connective tissue. | Rewrite as short prose subsections (one sentence each, e.g., “Cardiovascular MeHg effects remain contested: some cohort studies report associations …”) or convert to a compact numbered list with one-clause entries only, removing the extended synthesis from the bullets. | ⚠ yes — “small but suggestive” and “not yet quantitatively integrated” are evidence-quality judgments |
| mercury-methyl.md | 128 | the evidence base is small but suggestive (inside the thyroid-cancer bullet) | Qualifier “small” characterizing evidence magnitude without a quantitative anchor (no n, no study count). Compounded by this appearing inside a bullet-in-prose violation (see above). | Add a study count or anchor: “a 2024 meta-analysis of N studies examines this” — or let the prose rewrite of the bullets handle this naturally. | ⚠ yes — changes evidence-quality characterization |
| chocolate.md | 111 | White chocolate, which contains cocoa butter but not cocoa solids, carries minimal cadmium from the cocoa pathway. | ”minimal” characterizing cadmium magnitude with no quantitative anchor. Reader learns white chocolate has “minimal cadmium” but no ppb or comparative value is provided. | Anchor with a number: “White chocolate carries negligible cocoa-pathway cadmium — cocoa butter is approximately an order of magnitude lower in Cd than the defatted solids, and white chocolate contains no cocoa solids.” (If the value is not yet synthesised, replace with “substantially lower than dark chocolate; see cocoa for the cocoa-butter vs cocoa-solids Cd split.“) | ⚠ yes — factual claim about white chocolate cadmium level |
| seaweed.md | 94 | tissue concentrations of total arsenic that routinely reach 5–80 mg/kg dry weight — orders of magnitude above any terrestrial-plant matrix | ”orders of magnitude above” used without an explicit comparative value for the terrestrial-plant baseline. The seaweed range (5–80 mg/kg) is anchored, but the superlative “orders of magnitude above any terrestrial-plant matrix” asks the reader to accept a comparison with an unnamed upper bound. Minor — the claim is well-supported in the corpus. | Add a brief anchor: e.g., “compared with typical grain and vegetable matrices at 0.01–0.1 mg/kg dw” or “orders of magnitude above typical terrestrial-plant matrices (which rarely exceed 1 mg/kg dw).” | ⚠ yes — comparative claim about other matrices |
| seaweed.md | 123 | Fermented seaweed products … carry the parent species' metal load with negligible processing-driven change. | ”negligible” without quantitative anchor. Reader learns fermentation causes “negligible” change to metal load with no number. | Add an anchor or rephrase: “carry the parent species’ metal load essentially unchanged — fermentation does not alter per-mass metal concentrations measurably.” Or add a citation supporting the claim; if no source quantifies it, remove the claim. | ⚠ yes — factual claim about fermentation effect on seaweed metals |
P3 — em dashes & inline bold
| Page | Line | Offending text | Why | Suggested fix | Claim-adjacent? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arsenic-total.md | 24 | The principal organic forms — arsenobetaine in fin-fish and shellfish, arsenosugars in seaweed and bivalve molluscs — are substantially less toxic… | Two em dashes bracketing an embedded parenthetical list | Replace with parentheses: The principal organic forms (arsenobetaine in fin-fish and shellfish, arsenosugars in seaweed and bivalve molluscs) are substantially less toxic… | no |
| arsenic-total.md | 26 | the inorganic share of total arsenic is small — typically a low single-digit percentage — and arsenobetaine dominates | Two em dashes bracketing a quantitative clarification | Replace with parentheses or comma: …is small (typically a low single-digit percentage), and arsenobetaine dominates | no |
| lead.md | 57 | (0.63 µg/kg b.w./day dietary equivalent) — comparable in dietary-equivalent terms to the developmental BMDL01 | Em dash introducing a comparison phrase | Replace with a comma or semicolon: (0.63 µg/kg b.w./day dietary equivalent), comparable in dietary-equivalent terms to the developmental BMDL01 | no |
| lead.md | 147 | The corresponding regulatory conclusion — JECFA's 2010 withdrawal of the PTWI and EFSA's 2010 statement that no PTWI is health-protective … — is the cumulative position the wiki adopts | Two em dashes bracketing a long parenthetical | Replace with parentheses: The corresponding regulatory conclusion (JECFA's 2010 withdrawal … EFSA's 2010 statement …) is the cumulative position the wiki adopts | no |
| mercury-methyl.md | 34 | **Maximum levels in food** (binding) include … **Action levels** (nonbinding but enforcement-relevant) include … **Consumption advisories** (nonbinding consumer guidance) include … | Three bold terms mid-paragraph emphasising regulatory class names. Not definition labels at the start of paragraphs or bullets; used for structural emphasis inside a prose paragraph. | Remove bold; the sentence structure already signals the three classes. Or restructure as three short paragraphs each headed by a plain-text label. | no |
| mercury-methyl.md | 40 | Frequent fish consumers — subsistence-fishing communities, sport-fishing populations targeting predatory fish, populations whose cultural diet includes marine mammals — are the populations whose… | Two em dashes bracketing a parenthetical community list | Replace with parentheses: Frequent fish consumers (subsistence-fishing communities, sport-fishing populations targeting predatory fish, populations whose cultural diet includes marine mammals) are the populations… | no |
| mercury-methyl.md | 58 | primarily by microbial methylation in anoxic environments — wetland sediments, peatlands, paddy soils, lake hypolimnia, and the digestive tracts of sediment-feeding invertebrates | Em dash introducing an enumeration | Replace with a colon: …in anoxic environments: wetland sediments, peatlands, paddy soils, lake hypolimnia, and the digestive tracts of sediment-feeding invertebrates | no |
| mercury-methyl.md | 80 | Two long-running prospective birth cohort studies — the Faroe Islands cohort (initiated 1986, with follow-up through young adulthood) and the Seychelles Child Development Study (initiated 1989) — provide the foundational dose-response data… | Two em dashes bracketing a parenthetical list of named cohorts | Replace with parentheses: Two long-running prospective birth cohort studies (the Faroe Islands cohort, initiated 1986, with follow-up through young adulthood, and the Seychelles Child Development Study, initiated 1989) provide the foundational… | no |
| mercury-methyl.md | 88 | depends on the MeHg/PUFA ratio of the consumed species — high in apex predators (high MeHg, modest PUFA) vs low in small oily fish (modest MeHg, high PUFA) | Em dash introducing a contrast-pair | Replace with a colon or semicolon: …of the consumed species: high in apex predators (high MeHg, modest PUFA) versus low in small oily fish (modest MeHg, high PUFA) | no |
| mercury.md | 28 | This is the most harmonized of the heavy-metal regulatory landscapes covered by the wiki — in stark contrast to lead (no harmonized PTWI), arsenic (PTWI withdrawn), and cadmium (3-way divergence). | Em dash introducing contrast clause | Replace with a semicolon or start a new sentence: …covered by the wiki; this stands in stark contrast to lead … | no |
| rice.md | 145 | **Cooking-water-discard** … substantially reduces inorganic arsenic in finished cooked rice — reductions of 35–50 percent are documented across multiple primary studies | Em dash introducing quantitative elaboration | Replace with a colon or parentheses: …substantially reduces inorganic arsenic in finished cooked rice (reductions of 35–50 percent are documented across multiple primary studies) | no |
| rice.md | 171 | - **iAs**: a major concern for rice — rice is the highest-iAs staple food because flooded-paddy redox chemistry mobilizes… | Em dash as connector inside a bullet list item | Replace with a comma or semicolon: - **iAs**: a major concern for rice; rice is the highest-iAs staple food because… | no |
| cocoa.md | 151 | Pb mitigation follows a different lever order because Pb is primarily processing-side per the [[synthesis/us-chocolate-lead-temporal-decline|US-chocolate-Pb synthesis]] — sourcing-region change moves Pb less than manufacturer-side process control does. | Em dash as contrast connector | Replace with semicolon or comma: …the [[synthesis/us-chocolate-lead-temporal-decline|US-chocolate-Pb synthesis]]; sourcing-region change moves Pb less than manufacturer-side process control does. | no |
| seaweed.md | 94 | tissue concentrations of total arsenic that routinely reach 5–80 mg/kg dry weight — orders of magnitude above any terrestrial-plant matrix | Em dash introducing magnitude comparison | Replace with a comma or parentheses: …5–80 mg/kg dry weight, orders of magnitude above any terrestrial-plant matrix | no |
| seaweed.md | 98 | The bioconcentration factor (BCF) — the ratio of tissue concentration to ambient seawater concentration — is genus- and metal-specific | Two em dashes bracketing a definition | Replace with parentheses (already has (BCF) for the abbreviation): The bioconcentration factor (BCF, the ratio of tissue concentration to ambient seawater concentration) is genus- and metal-specific | no |
| spinach.md | 115 | Spinach is among the most efficient cadmium accumulators in the leafy-vegetable category — [[sources/efsa-cadmium-contam-2009|EFSA 2009]] places spinach mean Cd at the upper end of leafy-greens | Em dash introducing a supporting citation | Replace with a comma or semicolon: Spinach is among the most efficient cadmium accumulators in the leafy-vegetable category; [[sources/efsa-cadmium-contam-2009|EFSA 2009]] places spinach mean Cd at the upper end of leafy-greens | no |