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.
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.
The terminology isn’t really logical, but it does exist.
America: United States of America
North America: A continent
South America: The continent right below North America
The Americas: Both North and South America
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?
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.
220C is entering combustion territory, there’s no good reason to exceed 195C
It would surely be better than eating it regardless
Some people will use or even rig up anything as a pipe, whether it’s safe or not.
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Bunch of party poopers.
The opposite. They’re saying we’re all extra-metal!
Every high person I have ever met liked heavy metal.
Sure bud
