Green | July 14, 2008 | 4 comments

Hemp used to remove Chernobyl contaminants

source: http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/botany_map/articles/article_10.html

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JackHerer
In 1998, Phytotech, along with Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP) and the Ukraine's Institute of Bast Crops, planted industrial hemp, Cannabis sp., for the purpose of removing contaminants near the Chernobyl site. Cannabis is in the Cannabidaceae family and is valuable for its fiber, which is used in ropes and other products. This industrial variety of hemp, incidentally, has only trace amounts of THC, the chemical that produces the "high" in a plant of the same genus commonly known as marijuana.

Overall, phytoremediation has great potential for cleaning up toxic metals, pesticides, solvents, gasoline, and explosives. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more than 30,000 sites in the United States alone require hazardous waste treatment. Restoring these areas and their soil, as well as disposing of the wastes, are costly projects, but the costs are expected to be reduced drastically if plants provide the phytoremediation results everyone is hoping for.
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4 comments // Hemp used to remove Chernobyl contaminants

  • JackGrower
  • JackGrower
    • 0
      JackGrower  

    • Well, anglcazn, I can't answer the first part of your question but if you read what the person before you, he says "...grows well without... fertilizers." You may be confusing hemp with marijuana. Both are forms of cannabis but hemp is industrial and marijuana is medicinal. Do research if you want answers so badly.

    • 1 year ago
  • JackHerer
    • 0
      JackHerer  

    • Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants in the world. These plants have the ability to decontaminate soil by absorbing and/or trapping pollutants ranging from radiation and pesticides to solvents and toxins leaching from landfills.

      Unlike cotton, hemp is naturally hardy and drought tolerant and grows well without herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. Twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the U.S. are applied to cotton.

      Its growth rate is so rapid, it is ready for harvest in only 4 months- reaching a height of 6-12 feet, and producing 3-6 tons of dry fiber per acre.

      Hemp fibers are one of Earth's longest, strongest and most durable fibers and several times stronger than cotton.

    • 4 years ago
  • anglcazn
    • 0
      anglcazn  

    • What would they do when the hemp removes the contaminants? Does hemp destroy it or does it absorb it?
      And plus, doesn't hemp practically destroy soil because it needs so much nutrients to grow? I need some info please :)

    • 4 years ago
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