Is anyone else concerned about the effect of the battery fire in Northern California on produce sold in grocery stores nationwide?

[SPedigrees]

This is still ongoing I think, but the world's largest battery storage facility caught on fire some weeks ago, and it is spewing heavy metals and other toxins across what is commonly called "America's salad bowl." The Salinas Valley is the largest producer of fruits and vegetables for the USA, and certainly in winter months for far northern areas of the country. The mainstream press has been sweeping this under the rug, but independent sources have been reporting on it, Status Coup's youtube channel has been on the ground there.

This has me very worried. Locally grown produce from the farmers market and from my own small vegie patch won't be available for another 3 months. I brought home this collection of organically grown fruits and vegies from my last bi-monthly trip to the supermarket just after the fires had started to burn.

Assuming that a bath in vinegar and subsequent rinsing would remove toxins from the smoke, I prepared most of this stuff for eating, but froze the majority of the berries (to last me for what remains of winter). I worry about crops being grown now that are soaking up heavy metals in their roots, and will be very reluctant to buy my usual winter produce going forward. The oranges in this picture, I think, were grown in Mexico, but most of the rest came from the site of the battery fire. Anyone else sharing my concerns?

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@SPedigrees you have brought up a good point. The fire toxins once in soil spreads to vegetables , vine grapes for wines , fruiting trees , nuts is a reason to find more info from agencies that have studied the ground water , soils and ash contamination in California soils. This is a subject that has not been addressed yet. There are studies published from the 2017 wildfire from the wildfires in Northern California. In many ways the 2017 wildfire smaller in size does not hold comparison statistics.

One contamination well known in soils are heavy metals and other comparison particulents enter the soil it cannot be removed ever. The question is how high is the particulent matter measured per area of toxins in the soils and who is responsible for relaying this info to every grocery store to protect the public. It will be interesting how this is processed by the health dept.

Thank you SPedigrees for bring this to my attention.

 

[SPedigrees]

@SPedigrees you have brought up a good point. The fire toxins once in soil spreads to vegetables , vine grapes for wines , fruiting trees , nuts is a reason to find more info from agencies that have studied the ground water , soils and ash contamination in California soils. This is a subject that has not been addressed yet. There are studies published from the 2017 wildfire from the wildfires in Northern California. In many ways the 2017 wildfire smaller in size does not hold comparison statistics.

One contamination well known in soils are heavy metals and other comparison particulents enter the soil it cannot be removed ever. The question is how high is the particulent matter measured per area of toxins in the soils and who is responsible for relaying this info to every grocery store to protect the public. It will be interesting how this is processed by the health dept.

Thank you SPedigrees for bring this to my attention.

I hadn't even given thought to the wildfires in California, but you're right, even "ordinary" fires burning trees, brush, and building materials from houses create heavy metal particulate which gets into the ground, and from there into crops.

This lithium battery fire is even more toxic. I forget the names of the chemical poisons they mentioned, but I know it's not good. I actually hadn't thought about wine and nuts... oh no!