Harvesting metal from plants that suck it out of the ground

[j9c]

IANAD but IIRC cilantro chelates mercury… not iron.
A useful explainer here:

Chelation: Harnessing and Enhancing Heavy Metal Detoxification—A Review

@milliefink

Sure, but avoiding them all that successfully sounds well nigh impossible.

Not impossible.
Not even very hard.
Paying attention is the first step.
If you are in charge of babies’ and children’s health, it is crucial.

Important to note:

The dose makes the poison

We have heard of some things to watch out for besides arsenic in rice; or lead in old housepaints, or old water pipes or mismanaged water systems like in Flint, Michigan; or mercury in seafood. But hey Chocolate and cacao nibs have had some issues with the presence of heavy metals, same goes for (usually, imported) spices.

https://www.miskawaanhealth.com/heavy-metal-contamination/

Another important consideration is avoidable risk vs. unavoidable risk.

If you are privileged enough to have a choice in where you live, don’t live in Cancer Alley:

Cancer Alley

… or near oil refineries:

Houston-Area Refineries, Plants Emitted Thousands Of Pounds Of Additional Air...

… or coal-fired power plants:

Coal and Air Pollution

Avoiding airborne heavy metal particulates in your breathing space is one way to leverage avoidable risk, as important as paying attention to one’s dietary intake.

We are all gonna die of something. Some day. I am privileged to work a job that pushes very hard (using science and data) against polluters and though we don’t “win” all the time (because: Texas), it is clear that the body of valid, scientifically-sound best management practices is cumulative, and an evolving process. Progress, not perfection.

@fiddlingfrog

It depends a lot on how the plant is uptaking the metals. If it draws in the metal directly through the roots, then yes. But if instead the metals are drawn to the plant through the microbial network in the soil then metals can be removed far deeper and wider than the actual reach of the roots.

Fate and transport.

https://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc/transport_fate.html

How metals move or stick around in soil and in plants is well-studied.
This is dated 1989.

https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.highlight/abstract/5313/report/F

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479720308677

… and being studied worldwide.

Different plants mobilize different elements out of soil (and water). Plants differing as much as algae differs from oak trees do different things, have different uptake needs. This is a vast topic and the soil-food-web / soil biota is now being studied more seriously and with renewed vigor. That’s a big win right there.

[docosc]

That is exactly the issue. We use chelation in severe lead toxicity using a substance called EDTAate. It works great, but strips out Ca, Mg, Fe and other metals that are necessary to normal functioning. There have been reports of deaths associated with at-home chelation (It was a popular autism “treatment” in certain circles for a while.) Much better to avoid exposure in the first place, but as has been pointed out, easier said than done.

[jerwin]

The humans, and certain forms of life on this planet, yes. Wonder how Carlin would have reacted to a (all but implausible) runaway greenhouse effect a la Venus, or a nuclear winter.

Perhhaps he wasn’t so big on ecology.