“We don’t know what to look for” What utter dogshit. I work in environmental testing and it’s really not hard to blanket test soil samples for pretty much anything we currently recognize as “bad.”
They don’t want to spend the money on testing only to lose more money when they can’t sell their product.
I feel like you could ask your local high schools chemistry teacher what metals you should test for after a lithium fire
Most soil testing services offer a panel via mass spec. It’s like $100 per sample. The health official deserves to get hung from the flagpole by their underpants and/or assigned to a different job.
Didn’t mean to counter your comment, just meant that even If I were to run with the premise of “how ever should we know what to test for after a lithium fire!?” - stupid as it may be - that still seems easily solved by calling Mr. Meyers from the Salad Bowl Highschool (go greens!)
I’m a different user! Didn’t mean to argue, either, just wanted to add some emphasis. Go greens!
The SAME society that has deemed me and many young people “unemployable” because…well no reason actually are the same groups of idiots that are too stupid to test anything.
“Oopsie daisy! We messed up! SO QUIRKY AMIRIGHT!?!?!?”
I swear, I feel my Reddit atheist particles surge every day.
At least one answer to the question is in the question.
It’s not as accurate as mass spec but generally speaking you can test for geavy metals using certain acid and color changing indicators (in known concentrations) over a range of sample dilutions. Even better if you have a reference sample of a known concentration of the target, like manganese. Sometimes the chemical is not itself an acid but nevertheless reacts with the target.
For example, high concentrations of manganese will react with peeiodate to make a red/broan color. You can buy a set of 100 pouches of periodate for manganese testing on Amazon for $50.
Yeah seriously. It’s not even expensive either. I can get a soil sample tested for a whole suite of heavy metals (+other elements that plants crave) for <$60.
Plus if you’re “not sure what you’re looking for” you still can take the samples. Heavy metals are famously stable in soil; it’s not like you have to run the test immediately.
It’s the same strategy they did for covid, can’t have bad results if you just stop testing
I feel like I repeat this more and more, but this is why the way the US treats food safety is mental to me. Most other countries with a functioning food safety structure use the “precautionary principle”: you have to prove beyond doubt that the food is safe to eat, that it will not harm anyone eating or producing it. Otherwise you don’t get to sell it.
In the US they turn it on its head and say: you have to prove harm before we move to remove this item from the market, before that, go ahead and sell it. That’s why so many horrible additives and shit are allowed in the US and not in many other places.
Doesn’t the US run on what amounts to a self-certifying process? I.e. there’s standards, but adherence to it is the manufacturers job on the risk of being giga-sued by a customer or something.
The whole cancer-proven-additive thing seems to exists at the level of standards. It’s more regulatory capture - I mean what point is the FDA or whatever looking at your giant vat of Red 40 and going “perfect!” because it’s legal?
I ask this because I always get the feeling the difference between the US and like the EU boils down not so much in the approach - the EU loves themselves some self-certifying - it boils down as to whether the consequence is you can get theoretically sued for 8 gajillion dollars (US) or the European Federation Bureau of Commerce Standards and Neoliberalism shuts down your shit.
Doesn’t the US run on what amounts to a self-certifying process? I.e. there’s standards, but adherence to it is the manufacturers job on the risk of being giga-sued by a customer or something.
Yeah, but good luck proving liability in a civil case against the Pepsico-Walmart-Starbucks-Tyson Chicken-Coca-Cola megacorp. And besides, by the time you get a verdict the damage to public health was already done. The EU won’t let you approach a sales point without your shit in order. It is instrumentalized for neoliberalism purposes, of course, but again, what in the EU isn’t.
the EU loves themselves some self-certifying
It really depends, though. When it comes to novel foods or additives, it’s a pain in the ass to get a product to market in the EU because you have to prove it’s safe and blah blah blah. You won’t get sued for 910319098023810923 euros, but you will get fined 9480123802193012 euros if you are found to not comply the long and bureaucratic safety certification. For other things like labor practices, or sourcing? not so much.
Yeah, but good luck proving liability in a civil case against the Pepsico-Walmart-Starbucks-Tyson Chicken-Coca-Cola megacorp.
We here at PeWaStaTyChiColaCorp have always stood up for the little guy! The little guy lives at our campus in Omelas and legal has advised us to make no further comments on the little guy.
Yeah, but good luck proving liability in a civil case against the Pepsico-Walmart-Starbucks-Tyson Chicken-Coca-Cola megacorp. And besides, by the time you get a verdict the damage to public health was already done. The EU won’t let you approach a sales point without your shit in order.
I’d be fairly confident to say food standards are in the EU are better than the US, my point is mostly it’s not because of the approach - which in both cases is self-cert, it is what you put forth, the European Federation Bureau of Commerce Standards and Neoliberalism will actually shut you down for good instead of there being a 2% chance somebody gets 8 gajillion dollars out of Pepsico-Walmart, bankrupting them.
It really depends, though. When it comes to novel foods or additives, it’s a pain in the ass to get a product to market in the EU because you have to prove it’s safe and blah blah blah. You won’t get sued for 910319098023810923 euros, but you will get fined 9480123802193012 euros if you are found to not comply the long and bureaucratic safety certification.
I agree on that front.
Eat metals along with microplastics for a balanced diet
My brain: Do not keep reading
I reeeeeeally gotta leave this country
The people doing this are also doing this outside the country
Yeah but it generally isn’t as bad or as common. America is pretty egregious when it comes to environmental safety and food production
WE DID IT, REDDIT!
This is the economy telling young people they’re too stupid to ever work because they don’t have 5 years of experience for an entry-level job.
Do people normally use cilantro to detox or something?
some people say that it attracts heavy metals but not sure if there is much data behind it. If so, it could also mean that the plant is leeching from soil so you are just eating heavy metals to detox heavy metals.
That is more likely the case. Usually foods can not really outperform the kidneys/liver, otherwise we would have evolved to solely rely on such plants.
Good thing we’ve got those new tariffs to make imported produce prohibitively expensive
Blood donation is one way to purge heavy metals from your body fyi, if you’re able to donate.
