Some marijuana users may have elevated levels of lead and cadmium — two heavy metals linked to long-term health issues — in their blood and urine, a new study shows.
Among a group of more than 7,200 adults, the 358 who reported using marijuana within the past 30 days were found to have 27% higher blood lead levels than those who said they didn’t use either marijuana or tobacco.
The marijuana users also had 22% higher levels of cadmium in their blood, according to the research, which was published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Urine samples showed similar results.
The researchers, a team at Columbia University, knew going in that cannabis plants can absorb heavy metals from soil and, in fact, are particularly good at doing so. The contaminants travel through the stalk of the plant into the leaves and flowers.
But the new findings demonstrate that heavy metals in cannabis plants can also wind up in the human body.
There’s a similar issue with chocolate. The major chocolate brands were sued over heavy metal levels in their products a while back and had to agree to set upper limits, but it’s still a concern.
Yeah, at this point I’ve stopped eating dark chocolate. I love the taste of dark chocolate, but I don’t love it that much.
We already warn consumers about the safe levels of ozone found in water bottles. Why aren’t we regulating and creating adequate warnings for literal lead and cadmium? It’s not like they’re immune to being tested. It’s not like their negative side effects are undiscovered.
Lead and cadmium can do some pretty nasty stuff to the body. It’s also in most cheap jewelry ( common in places like Ardenes, H&M, AE, etc), and almost all children’s jewelry (common in places like Claires, the Childrens place, etc). Some of it is at a pretty high concentration, too.
Scary stuff.
I’m in my forties and I have a few health issues related to the random things businesses put in food.
Every decade “feels” like we’re eating better. But then we find some new poison that businesses are injecting to food to make another buck.
I read a review article that summed up the effects of toxic levels of lead on the human body and how many Americans were exposed to toxic levels and bruh…Boomers had an 80% toxic level exposure percentage and of all living US citizens, it’s currently 50% with 2019 births as the cutoff year. Lead has well known developmental effects, this expanded it to show it has a 60% chance of causing adhd, with further effects causing autism, and in severe cases Cerebellar Hypodysplasia (basically underdeveloped cerebellum, makes walking and balance very difficult).
And the kicker, why and where did the exposures come from? I guessed lead in metal piping and lack of strict water contamination regulations in some places. I wasn’t expecting the answer to be because leaded gasoline was banned in fucking 1996. I thought it was banned in like the 80s or something, but no we were poisoned and I see its effects in so many of my peers, the adhd particularly.
Since Cannabis was legalized in Canada, the government tests it to ensure heavy metals are below set health limits almost with a list of other chemicals found in pesticides. Another reason the war on drugs is actually a massive disservice to the American people…well, USA people as Canada is in America too.
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Just another reason to grow your own at home if able.
But be mindful of what soil you use and where it comes from! This is my specific area of study in Toxicology and I never get to talk about it much haha. The amount of lead, selenium, cadmium is high in some places soils and I wouldn’t put it past companies going to the max heavy metal levels as legally possible (which odds are, are significantly higher than the EUs levels) and y’all end up using marijuana plants that bioaccumulated all those metals into the leaves/flower.
So does that mean we could use hemp as a fiber replacement in places with contaminated soil?
Yes.
It’s called phytoremediation. Hemp is an insanely cool plant. The issues with phytoremediation are:
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time consuming; you got to wait for the plants to grow
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generally only a few metals are taken up by a given spp., so application is limited and depends on metals present and plants growing conditions and the metals they uptake intersecting
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you then have to harvest the plants and dispose of them in a landfill, which means you have to truck them.
Generally, during soil remediation projects they just excavate the soil and landfill it. They then bring in clean soil or use organic amendments to improve the subsoil horizons to the point they can support plants
Why would you need to send it to a landfill, and release the chemicals there as the plant decays, when you could just make stuff out of it.
Because the chemicals and metals are not biostable, and you would be creating further contamination pathways.
Landfills are designed to not release anything into the environment.
That may or may not happen in reality, but there is an attempt.
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Cadmium evaporates at 767 °C, lead at 1749°C. Is it save to vaporize the weed at 220°C?
The problem is the heavy metal sticking to the vapor particles. Heavy metal should be avoided at all costs.
Guess you aren’t a Black Sabbath fan.
Goddamn punks!
No no, metal, not punk.
I’m not really into Pokémon
220C is entering combustion territory, there’s no good reason to exceed 195C
It would surely be better than eating it regardless
It getting into your lungs and entering the bloodstream is where the danger comes in. It being in particle form is not good to inhale as much as vaporizing it into a gas is, cadmium especially since it’s a bioaccumulator and doesn’t like to leave the body.
Bunch of party poopers.
The opposite. They’re saying we’re all extra-metal!
Sure bud
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Every high person I have ever met liked heavy metal.
