We are basically saying the same thing, Sukie. My whole point in the last email was that mineral oil can act as a carrier for other things. There was no confusion; the citation supported my point. But there are a number of reasons why one should be cautious about ingesting mineral oil, even when food grade. Personally I would use it only for external use, and even then make sure it is food grade, because that is about the only way you can know how refined it is, unless you can find a Material Safety Data Sheet for that particular product. Even then the information is sometimes scanty. I just looked at a few from different companies. A number of foods have small amounts (it is used as a mold release for some candies for example), so it's pretty hard to avoid entirely, and it is probably not harmful as long as it is food grade and you aren't eating a lot of it. Lonny Eachus [Posted in FML 7547]