On the label it stated, “Use of this product may result in cadmium and/or lead and/or mercury residues in excess of the maximum permitted concentration (MPC) in plant and animal products and may also result in accumulation of these residues in soils”.

On the label it listed the levels of various ingredients, but the levels of heavy metals were: mercury 5 milligrams per kilogram, cadmium 10mg/kg and lead 50mg/kg.

I thought this was crazy to use this commonly used brand of fertiliser on our land where we grow our foods.

Last Thursday I went to a farm supply outlet and read the label on the same brand of fertiliser to see if these heavy metals had been removed.

There are several types of this particular fertiliser but one called Pivot had: lead 50mg/kg, cadmium 10mg/kg and mercury 2mg/kg.

A more expensive type contained: lead 20mg/kg, mercury 2mg/kg and cadmium 5mg/kg.

I cannot believe that these heavy metals, especially cadmium, still persist in the fertilisers we are spreading on our farm lands to grow our foods.

Heavy metals accumulate in plant and animal bodies and can cause medical problems.

One would think that all the heavy metals would have been removed from the fertilisers that our farmers are using to grow our foods in Australia.

I suppose given all the pesticides, chemicals and GM seeds that are being used it is nothing to be concerned about, but I personally think we are poisoning ourselves.

— SUMNER BERG,

Beechworth