Toxic Veggies Found in Community Gardens

- 11/18/2014 by Gary Buiso (NY Post)

Herbs and vegetables grown in New York City community gardens are loaded with lead and other toxic metals, a startling state study shows.

Tainted vegetables — some sold in city markets — were found in five of seven plots tested, according to data obtained from the study by The Post through the Freedom of Information Law.

Most of the root vegetables sampled far exceeded safe thresholds for lead, with the most toxic being a carrot at the Hart to Hart community garden in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

It contained 1.95 parts per million of the toxic metal — nearly 20 times the level considered safe, according to state Health Department data.