On 14/01/2016 15:30, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 13:33:57 +0000, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 13/01/16 22:55, Charlie Pridham wrote:
On 13/01/2016 13:02, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
David Hill wrote:
In Tesco yesterday I noticed that their premium parsnips claimed to be
grown in Mineraly enriched soil.
Any ideas whay this could be other than soil with fretilizer in it?

Soil contaminated by heavy metals?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

That was my thought! we are not supposed to eat any root veg from our
garden due to heavy metal and arsenic in the sub soil so not perhaps the
best way to advertise veg!!

I wonder if there is any evidence that all the Cornish wildlife eating
wild fruit, leaves, stems, etc is being poisoned, and is suffering as a
result.

While old mine workings and waste tips abound in Cornwall, as a
percentage of total land area they're probably pretty small. Charlie's
property is in a village that was down-wind of a local arsenic works,
active before WW1. Arsenic was produced by heating the ore over a
furnace to distil off the arsenic oxide and then recondensing it in a
series of interconnected brick chambers, known as a labyrinth (or in
local dialect, a lambreth), before venting the flue gas to the
atmosphere via a chimney. Unfortunately the condensing process was not
very efficient and a lot of arsenic smoke escaped through the chimney,
to contaminate land for many hundreds of yards down-wind.

The white refined arsenic oxide powder was shovelled out of the
chambers in the labyrinth by hand, the workers wearing the minimum of
protection, little more that a piece of cloth wrapped around their
faces, or cotton wool stuffed up their noses and in their ears!
http://tinyurl.com/gpwkn4d and http://tinyurl.com/hjqzg8t

AIUI resistance to arsenic can be built up by repeated low dose
exposure. I imagine these guys must have been pretty resistant!

One or two derelict labyrinths still exist, complete with a residue of
arsenic on their walls and floors.

Interesting Chris, I had not heard the term lambreth, I thought they
were called Calciners? (I may have miss spelled that) But you are right
I walk the dog past two nearly every day

--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
National collections of Clematis viticella & Lapageria rosea