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heavy metals in home garden fertilizers

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I don't have a source for this article, but am forwarding

it along to y'all. Disturbing reading:

Your Fertilizer Ends Up in Your Plants.

But What's Ending Up in It?

With summer in full gear, the spades and hoes are out in full force as

Americans get growing. From vegetables to flowers, the plants are in, the

soil is watered, the fertilizer applied, and all is well in the garden.

Except for one largely overlooked detail: that fertilizer you're using may

have been made with toxic waste, and it could be poisoning your soil, your

crops, and your family.

A new study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) has found

that commercial fertilizers contain toxic metals and are turning the

nation's yards and gardens into a de facto dumping ground for hazardous

waste.

The report, Waste Lands: The Threat of Toxic Fertilizer, analyzed 29

separate fertilizers and found that each of them contained an astonishing

array of 22 different heavy metals. In 20 of the tested products, levels of

these poisons were so high that they exceeded the limits set on wastes sent

to public landfills.

The fertilizers were purchased in 12 states and then tested by Frontier

Geosciences, an EPA-accredited independent laboratory in Seattle. The

analysis revealed disturbing quantities of arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium,

chromium, and dioxin, among other dangerous contaminants.

How has this come to be? That answer is simple: Industrial facilities are

" recycling " their wastes as low-cost " nutrients " and are selling these

materials to fertilizer companies seeking inexpensive sources for zinc and

iron. These industrial wastes, while providing such beneficial minerals, are

also loaded with persistent toxic chemicals and metals.

In addition to any hazards of direct exposure that can come when children

play on recently fertilized lawns or gardeners weed in freshly fed flower

beds, these toxic contaminants can remain in the soil for years and can be

absorbed by anything growing there, a particular concern when it comes to

food crops. In fact, a California Department of Food and Agriculture

assessment of the health risk posed by toxic fertilizers called the eating

of food grown with contaminated fertilizers the greatest single source of

exposure to these toxins among all commercial products.

For information on the USPIRG report, visit:

http://pirg.org/toxics/reports/wastelands/index.html#exec

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