c h r i s.. Ah! I did wonder. That answers your query. Not a lot you can do other than move house to a nonmining county! When I was house hunting I avoided several properties which were on or close to mined land or mine shafts. Rather difficult down here. It is very expensive to have an area surveyed and if necessary, any shaft filled and capped safely. There had been a lot of subsidence of unrecorded shafts when I was house hunting which made me extremely cautious. Imerys still holds the mining rights to most of the properties down here and you should have been notified of any shafts, adits, etc., when buying your property. I had to have a specific survey done when I bought my cottage. Have you approached the local council? They ran advice evenings when they did the Radon test. Not that they were much help. Do you have a local gardening club near you? They might be able to help. I have a feeling any queries will be dismissed out of hand. I have never heard of any research into the long-term effects of plants grown in high-level arsenic soil. Plymouth or Exeter Universities may be an avenue to explore.
The question is does the arsenic get taken up by the plant and does it accumulate in fruits etc? (In which case they would contain high levels). Or does the plant not absorb it. Some of the science articles I've seen online suggest the latter, but I'm not going to advise one way or the other! I've worked on a site where fruit trees were banned because of potential contamination, despite 600mm of imported soil being placed over existing ground with a separation membrane!
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
@c_h_r_i_s I would be interested to know what you find out - from RHS or elsewhere - on plants absorbing arsenic and transfering to fruit. It's a good question. Please let us know what you discover.
Posts
Ah! I did wonder. That answers your query. Not a lot you can do other than move house to a nonmining county! When I was house hunting I avoided several properties which were on or close to mined land or mine shafts. Rather difficult down here. It is very expensive to have an area surveyed and if necessary, any shaft filled and capped safely. There had been a lot of subsidence of unrecorded shafts when I was house hunting which made me extremely cautious. Imerys still holds the mining rights to most of the properties down here and you should have been notified of any shafts, adits, etc., when buying your property. I had to have a specific survey done when I bought my cottage.
Have you approached the local council? They ran advice evenings when they did the Radon test. Not that they were much help. Do you have a local gardening club near you? They might be able to help. I have a feeling any queries will be dismissed out of hand. I have never heard of any research into the long-term effects of plants grown in high-level arsenic soil. Plymouth or Exeter Universities may be an avenue to explore.