permaculture

[FranandDave Nokes <fdnokes@hotmail.com>]

Thanks for sharing this, Lawrence.
I recently picked up a Vancouver Sun when I noticed this related article:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Nanoparticles+tiny+question+safety/7074100/story.html
Frances

> Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:46:24 -0400
> From: lflj@bellsouth.net
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: [SANET-MG] nanoparticles an emerging threat to 
>   the food supply
> 
> ------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [SANET-MG] nanoparticles  an emerging threat to the food supply
> Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:13:05 -0400
> From: jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
> To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
> 
> Sunscreens, lotions, and cosmetics contain tiny metal nanoparticles that
> wash down the drain at the end of the day, or are discharged after
> manufacturing. Those nanoparticles eventually end up in agricultural
> soil, which is a cause for concern.
> 
> Priester, J.H., Ge, Y., Mielke, R.E., Horst, A.M., Cole Moritz, S.,
> Espinosa, K., Gelb, J., Walker, S.L., Nisbet, R.M., Schimel, J.P.,
> Palmer, R.G., Hernandez-Viezcas, J.A., Zhao, L., Gardea-Torresdey, J.L.,
> Holden, P.A. 2012. Soybean Susceptibility to Manufactured Nanomaterials
> with Evidence for Food Quality and Soil Fertility Interruption. Proc
> Natl Acad Sci USA Published online before print August 20, 2012, doi:
> 10.1073/pnas.1205431109
> abstract:Based on previously published hydroponic plant, planktonic
> bacterial, and soil microbial community research, manufactured
> nanomaterial (MNM) environmental buildup could profoundly alter
> soil-based food crop quality and yield. However, thus far, no single
> study has at once examined the full implications, as no studies have
> involved growing plants to full maturity in MNM-contaminated field soil.
> We have done so for soybean, a major global commodity crop, using farm
> soil amended with two high-production metal oxide MNMs (nano-CeO2 and
> -ZnO). The results provide a clear, but unfortunate, view of what could
> arise over the long term: (i) for nano-ZnO, component metal was taken up
> and distributed throughout edible plant tissues; (ii) for nano-CeO2,
> plant growth and yield diminished, but also (iii) nitrogen fixation—a
> major ecosystem service of leguminous crops—was shut down at high
> nano-CeO2 concentration. Juxtaposed against widespread land application
> of wastewater treatment biosolids to food crops, these findings forewarn
> of agriculturally associated human and environmental risks from the
> accelerating use of MNMs.
> 
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