Pollutants found in 93% of Lettuce and Milk in US

[mamadrama]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has released its long
anticipated report on the human health effects of perchlorates, a
byproduct of rocket fuel. Perchlorates, which are a common pollutant
near military sites, have recently BEEN FOUND IN DRINKING WATER IN 35
STATES AS WELL AS IN 93 PERCENT OF LETTUCE AND MILK.
Along with the report, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
set drinking water standards indicating that perchlorates are roughly
TEN TIMES MORE TOXIC to humans than the Department of Defense has been
claiming. Perchlorates can inhibit thyroid function, cause birth
defects and lower IQs, and are considered particularly dangerous to
children. Monitoring wells across the U.S. are now finding perchlorate
levels as high as 30,000 times what the EPA indicates would be safe
exposure.
To avoid liability, the Pentagon is currently pressuring Congress to
pass a new bill that states the military does not have to adhere to any
environmental regulations (as a matter of national security)

 

[Rhansen]

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng1255.html
Ammonium perchlorate. I like where it says, "Health effects of exposure to the substance have not been investigated adequately."
Perchlorate is just the tip of the iceberg of groundwater pollution. TCE is another common chemical in groundwater. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0629.html

 

[sHiZo963]

For those interested, here is a link to:
"Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion"
Committee to Assess the Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion
Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
Division on Earth and Life Studies
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309095689/html/

This report was published in 2005.

I cannot easily find the link(s) to what you are writing about, mamadrama. Could you please provide one?

 

[mamadrama]

A friend of mine from Physicians for Social Responsibility sent me this from the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear War in Space and can be found at www(dot)space4peace(dot)org

 

[kenney]

This is probably along the same lines, they have found perchlorate in 15 different brands of baby formula as well

http://www.ewg.org/report/CDC-Scientists-Find-Rocket-Fuel-Chemical-In-Infant-Formula

 

[PepperFritz]

My cousin/housemate, Leslie, avoided eating salads for a long time because they give her the "runs". However, this spring I converted all of our garden beds from growing flowers/ornamentals to growing vegetables (organically, or course), and I persuaded her to try some salads made with all home-grown ingredients, including lettuce of course. To her surprise, she digests our homegrown salads just fine, and in fact, now eats a large bowl of greens everyday, which I prepare and send off with her to work.

It does not surprise me to learn that 93% of commercially-grown lettuce contain pollutants.

 

[kenney]

i just spent the last 6 months eating just rice and bread, with cabbage tossed in once and a while. I know ",sounds like the worst diet ever!!" but honestly I have felt the best I have in years and years. i actually managed to gain 15lbs and get to that 200lb mark I have wanted to reach for my entire life.

since I can't say I feel better cause I have such a wonderfully balanced diet, I can only assume I feel better from what I am NOT eating all of a sudden.

i wish I didn't live on a heap of sand and gravel, my soil makes for the worst garden ever!

 

[PepperFritz]

i wish I didn't live on a heap of sand and gravel, my soil makes for the worst garden ever!

Don't let that stop you! You can buy good garden soil and/or organic materials with which to improve the soil that you have. I gradually improved the existing beds on our property by adding manure, compost, top soil, peat moss, etc. over several seasons, and now the soil is extremely rich. I also grow a number of vegetables in large containers filled with commercial topsoil.

However, I just found out that the man who owns the abandoned field next door to us doesn't mind if we use if for a garden plot next season -- which made me really excited and happy, until I found out how truly awful the soil is. So I did a lot of thinking and researching on the internet, and finally discovered the solution: A "Tire Garden"!

The link below will give you fuller information. But, basically, you get old tires for free, dig a hole the size of the tire's parameter, replace the awful soil with commercial topsoil and/or organic materials until it is full, then put the tire in place, and fill it to the top with more topsoil/materials. And -- voila -- you have an instant deeply-dug "raised bed" that you never need to walk on, and therefore can grow your favourite vegetable in quite intensively (i.e. closer together than in a traditional "row garden"). Just keep repeating those steps until you have a garden of tires! I can't wait to get started on my "Tire Garden" this fall!

This is a good link. But you will find tons more information/testimonials from "Tire Gardeners" on the internet, by doing searches with the search strings "Tire Garden", "Tire Gardens", "Tire Gardening", and "Gardening With Tires"....
A Garden Using Tires by Charles Sanders

 

[kenney]

that is a great idea!! and we happen to have about 50 tires in the woods out back that the previous owners left us a gift :/ I will give it a try though I doubt I can get much planted this year, been such a cool dark summer and it is so late in the year. next summer I'll take some pics and show how it went.

way better than dishing out five dollars a tire to have them disposed of.

 

[PepperFritz]

that is a great idea!! and we happen to have about 50 tires in the woods out back that the previous owners left us a gift :/

There ya go!

I will give it a try though I doubt I can get much planted this year.....

Yes it IS late in the season to be starting a garden. But if you're keen, right now is the time that gardeners start planing their fall crops -- those vegetables that like a cool growing season and will be harvestable before the first Fall frost. I've just planed peas, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuces, spinach, green onions, radishes, and carrots (in our backyard garden beds, that is; haven't started the Tire Garden yet). I'm in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, and therefore in the same gardening zone as you.

Also, it's a good idea to get the holes dug and your soil/materials in place in the fall, so that you can start using your "tire beds" first thing in the spring. You might want to consider doing that in October or November, which is what I'm going to do. I haven't decided how many tires I'm going to put in place yet, but if I do a lot I thought it might be worth renting an "earth auger" for a day to help loosen the dirt for digging. We'll see....

Warning: Once you start gardening, you may get seriously addicted. Be prepared. :P

 

[kenney]

I had just marched right out in the yard to figure out where "my" garden would go. As opposed to the wife's, hehe. She has her little thing going that I stay out of, it's just "her" thing ya know. It will take me the rest of the summer to do, just moving all the tires dig the holes, burn the stumps and branches in that area (this is the big task), save up money to buy the soil.

I just got a job, which is rather startling considering the economy, so I should have it it all ready by October. And maybe, just maybe, next summer the wife will see how a good idea it was and let me do the same thing in her little plot. Not like there is any shortage of tires.

i was also pondering when I was in the yard the tires would allow me a way to easily fence in the the baby plants. With all the deer, raccoons, opossum, etc. here things like cucumber, lettuce and cabbage are dainty morsels that disappear quickly when they are just little sprouts. One really needs a cage, fences rarely work except against rabbits.

 

[1984]

So I did a lot of thinking and researching on the internet, and finally discovered the solution: A "Tire Garden"!

Interesting idea, PF. OTOH, one must wonder as the tires break down what type chemical may be released. Raw materials used in manufacturing are rubber, oils, pigments, antioxidants, carbon black or silica, accelerators and other additives. Of course, I'd need to do more research to determine the speed at which decomposition would occur. ;)

 

[Bo]

Interesting idea, PF. OTOH, one must wonder as the tires break down what type chemical may be released.

I think you made a very important point...the tires idea , actually reminded me of water in plastic bottles, with al those chemicals from the plastic.

Of course, I'd need to do more research to determine the speed at which decomposition would occur.

I don't think that there are any organisms that feed on tires/rubber? so that would make it like ''Unknown''?

 

[PepperFritz]

i was also pondering when I was in the yard the tires would allow me a way to easily fence in the the baby plants. With all the deer, raccoons, opossum, etc. here things like cucumber, lettuce and cabbage are dainty morsels that disappear quickly when they are just little sprouts. One really needs a cage, fences rarely work except against rabbits.

Chicken wire, my friend -- chicken wire!

 

[PepperFritz]

OTOH, one must wonder as the tires break down what type chemical may be released. Raw materials used in manufacturing are rubber, oils, pigments, antioxidants, carbon black or silica, accelerators and other additives. Of course, I'd need to do more research to determine the speed at which decomposition would occur. ;)

Ah yes, I should have mentioned this. There has been a lot of discussion about this and related research on gardening forums, and the concensus seems to be that provided you thoroughly clean the tires of any surface gunk (grease, oil, etc), the tires themselves do NOT break down and release any harmful chemicals into the soil. That is why they are so difficult to dispose of. They don't break down and last forever. Plus there is a good "environment" argument to be made, seeing that the tires are better off being "recycled" and put to good use than sitting in a landfill.

However, please do not take my word for it. Conduct your own research. I'm satisfied with what I have read by those who have researched the issue, and those who have been "tire gardening" for quite some time, and do not consider it a "problem".