Lead found in Michelle Obama's White House vegetable gardenSuzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondentThursday 2 July 2009 23.08 BSTIt was meant to be a show case for healthy living, with the first lady, Michelle Obama, personally putting hand to pitch fork in a crowd of school children to dig up the first White House vegetable garden in more than 50 years.Instead, an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot - whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead.A spokeswoman for the White House said the soil in the garden had lead concentrations of 93 parts per million of lead. Health experts say it is safe to raise leafy vegetables in soil with concentrations of 10-50 parts per million...
You probably won't hear Katie Couric talking about this on teh cBS News tonight...I'd call this somewhat ironic given the circus production that went into the starting of this garden; I have to admit to indulging in some schadenfreude again (I'm just evil that way), this is from the UK Guardian, all emphasis is my own:Maybe some of this garbage food will get served to Chavez or Putin.Full story:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/michelle-obama-vegetable-garden-lead
Let's not kid ourselves. We all know that before he left the White House, GW Bush buried multiple batteries and paint made in the early 1970's in the exact spot that the Obama vegetable garden was started.
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