[lr4444lr]

Flaxseeds as well. ConsumerLabs carefully documents the cadmium concentration of common brands[0], and many are unsafe.

Flax is such an efficient bio-concentrator of cadmium in fact, that a municipality in PA considered sowing a field of it to remediate a polluted former industrial site. (No clue how they would have harvested and disposed of the tainted flax.)

[0] https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/flaxseed-whole-ground-an... (may require membership to read).

[stephen_g]

They could potentially do pyrolysis of the biomass (after harvest) and then extract the heavy metals from the resulting char.

e.g. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09619...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09213...

[magicalhippo]

> No clue how they would have harvested and disposed of the tainted flax.

Sounds like a good basis for a NileRed[1] episode, say making paint[2] from flax seeds.

[1]: https://nile.red/

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pigments#Cadmium_red

[bregma]

> No clue how they would have harvested and disposed of the tainted flax.

It's flax. Harvest it before it goes to seed, ret it, break it, scutch it, spin it, weave it, make it into expensive garments. Unless you eat your shirt it's going to be perfectly safe.

[lr4444lr]

And when said shirts are washed, the cadmium rich fibers in the effluent water go where?

[lazide]

Probably burned it - hence releasing it all into the air. But hey, out of sight, out of mind?