We avoid mercury, arsenic, and lead exposure, but there’s one heavy metal that we gulp down in smaller doses: bismuth. And if it were less toxic, bismuth could one day keep us from stinking up elevators and other public places with our farts.
Source: Bismuth Could Stop Farts From Smelling, If Someone Could Make It Safe
But some people express love via a “Dutch oven” – fart in the bed, and pull the covers over the victims head so they can’t escape… 😀
Urban farmers who have their soil tested for heavy metals and other contaminants can get a nasty shock when they realize what would be coursing through the food they grow on their land. Establish an innocent little vegetable patch and you’ll be serving your family a salad full of fresh lead.
Happily, contaminated soil doesn’t mean farming is out of the question. A relatively small investment in compost and new topsoil can mean a relatively large drop in contaminants. Some urban farmers put in raised beds that keep the plants they intend to eat out of contact with the soil. And then there’s another solution: phytoremediation.
Source: There’s Lead in Your Farm, But Here’s How to Get It Out
I do not recommend eating Indian mustard, or mustard greens in general. 3.5 oz/100 grams of mustard greens contains 592.7 mcg of vitamin K, or 564% of the Daily Value (DV).
Same recommendation goes for Chinese cabbage. 100 grams of Chinese cabbage contains 42.9 mcg of vitamin K, or 54% DV. It’s not as bad for us as mustard greens, but certainly higher than most what I’ve profiled to date.
Ana Navas-Acien can’t quite recall the moment when she began to worry about arsenic in drinking water and its potential role in heart disease. Perhaps it was when she read a study suggesting a link among people in Bangladesh. And a similar study in Taiwan. And in Chile.
Several years ago, Dr. Navas-Acien, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, decided to see if similar links could be found in the United States.
Source: A Heart Risk in Drinking Water
Sadly, the article doesn’t have any suggestions for preventative measures. Only that they were looking at filters on wells. Ground/well water is largely the focus.
