SOY PLANTS MIGHT BE USED TO DRAW CADMIUM FROM SOIL
Effective extraction of the toxic
metal cadmium from soil may at last be feasible using soybean
plants, research in the Netherlands by a Belgian-based
environment group shows.
    Cadmium, naturally drawn up by plants and passed on to
consumers, has been shown to produce kidney damage and
resulting calcium loss as well as causing high blood pressure
and cancers, a spokesman for the Ecological Life and
Cultivation (VELT) said.
    Three years of experiments by the organization showed
soybean plants extracted up to 16 pct of soil-borne cadmium,
which went into the leaves and not into the beans themselves.
    Cadmium is present in the soil because of emissions in the
past by factories producing non-ferrous metals, the spokesman
said.
    "Although many of these factories are now using far safer
methods of manufacture, the cadmium is already in the soil and
until now there has been no way to get rid of it," he said.
 Reuter
