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.