I have a batch of flowers / trim that failed a CAT 3 test in California at a legal operation and wondered what the common reasons may be? We are going to test the paint in the rooms, water coming into the property from the 3 water sources, and potentially any other floor and roofing that would have had particles come out onto the plants. We are also very concerned that the lab possibly made an error or failed to clean their equipment and want to retest, however, verbage in the new laws in California actually required it to be destroyed, or remediated. So this brings me further down the legal rabbit hole, which, the lab made an error and what damages in test and time lost to labor, etc.
Anyone have any ideas where else this may be coming from? We used gas blowers to blow off water off the plants, *outdoors, and had humidifiers without filtration at the facility that concerns me.
What level of contamination of Pb are you talking about? Tenths of a ppm? ppb?
I have dealt with this as well on a hemp farm that had nearby oil and gas activity, which seemed to be the culprit, causing top soil contamination. Cannabis is a lead hyperaccumulator and will pick up even small amounts of lead if they aren’t bound tightly in an insoluble compound.
What type of growing media is being used? Bat guanos are notorious for having high lead levels, also other unrefined organic inputs can often test positive for lead as well. I’ve done quite a bit of research and remediation of lead, happy to help out.
The place used to be a car junk yard, plenty of industrial waste. That’s a good point. I remember reading an article about the largest metal plant in Italy using hemp to remediate their towns political errors as the town turned a new direction and couldn’t ignore the ground pollution anymore.
What medium do you grow in?
Soil or nutrients are most likely source.
Whatever is in those, will accumulate in the plant.
Nutrients is the typical source we encounter.
Growing outside in soil can also be a huge issue.
The soil was a mendo blendo, haha. It was a CDFA approved soil mix though. We are definitely going to check our 3 water sources, then if positive, test them individually, as its city water but from multiple meters. Then we can test the soil, the paint in one of the storage rooms, and unfortunately, the tea the other consultant guy was brewing from the ocean kelp has been cleaned out. Hopefully the soil shows the lead though if that was the culprit. This is a new one on me.