permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

In a message dated 6/13/2003 1:29:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, hemenway@jeffnet.org writes:

Scott Pittman wrote:

>The ink itself does not contain any lead but today is contaminated 
>with soy.  [snip] Some of the colored inks did, and may still, have 
>toxic properties ie Cadmium,

Today all newspaper inks, including the colored ones, are soy derived 
(black ink has been soy based for about 20 years). Until a few years 
ago, colored inks on shiny paper (those ad inserts) needed a metal 
mordant to make them adhere, but I've been told that's been changed 
too. So newspaper shouldn't be toxic.

An urban gardener I once knew would wait until his vegetables had sprouted and then cover the garden in four or five inches of shredded newspaper mulch. There was zero weed infestation and his vegetables were prizewinners. I don't know whether it was just the lack of competition or whether the newsprint had some nutritional value, but his veggies tasted fine.

Mike Elvin