Is food grown in an old driveway safe to eat?

Question

My husband planted me a vegetable garden in our old driveway. The plants look healthy. I'm nervous because of the oil, gas, and antifreeze that must have been spilled there over the years. I don't want to hurt his feelings, but I don't want to get sick either.

Answer 1

Send a sample of the dirt to the EPA. They will tel you if it is safe.
Call them first and ask how to take the sample.

Answer 2

First off, just b/c a plant looks healthy does not mean that it is safe to eat the fruit/veggies from it. Phytoremediation is when plants are used to suck toxic chemicals out of the ground. Then they are pulled up and tossed out. Ever read the warnings on a bottle of motor oil? Causes cancer, doesn't it? I'd be planting in pots, w/ purchased organic soil. I live in New Orleans. A few months after Katrina, some melon plants started popping up in Chalmette, LA. People here were specifically warned not to eat them. If you think it is unsafe, do not eat them just for the sake of making your husband happy. There could be long-term health problems that do not show up in a week or month or 2. Get your soil tested, for lead, etc. If it was a driveway for 50 years, then it may have lead in the ground which could cause some bad side effects.

Answer 3

Unless you people drive the sh*ttiest cars that were ever on the road, then I don't see how enough oil and gas to affect you would have been spilled there.

Also, as far as gasoline, it evaporates very quickly and over the years would not have left enough residue to harm a flea.

I have accidentally ingested gasoline before when I was siphoning it or changing it between tanks in my car that I was rebuilding etc. etc. etc. and I didn't get sick.

As far as oil, the amount of oil to which they have exposed rats or any kind of lab animal to induce cancer is so great in comparison to what you would ever get from those vegetables . . .

You need to get real lady.

Quit imagining that you are eating oil and realize that that stuff is long gone.

You are eating vegetables.

Do you know that everytime you flush the toilet in your house you release tremendous amounts of harmful microorganisms into the air that land on you toothbrush, towels, soap, sink, etc. etc. etc. but I bet you don't buy a new toothbrush everyday or wash the entire bathroom every time someone takes a sh*t.

Get real lady. What do you think is worse for you, the vegetables you get from the grocery store on which pesticides have been used or that have been covered in wax and stored in warehouses for weeks on end, or the fresh produce that came from the ground where your old driveway was.

Answer 4

Best to play it on the safe side. The biggest danger (in my opinion and I'm no scientist) would be from lead. Although the gas might be long gone, the lead often (being such a heavy element) stays put. Those plants might be growing in a lot of Lead. I would suggest you have the soil (or better yet the plants themselves) tested. If you're really worried you'd be safe if you dug out 4 or so feet of the soil and filled it in with CLEAN fill dirt. Then you could be pretty sure you wouldn't be eating anything bad.

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure, since my Mum grew some gardens in some really weird places, that it would be safe. I mean if it was that hazardous, the plants most likely wouldn't even grow. Look at the plants themselves - are they healthy? Do the leaves have disease spots or lacing (where they have lots of tiny holes that look like lace)? The oil and stuff won't be in the plants - they're only taking nutrients from the soil, not taking in the soil itself.
If you really aren't sure, I agree with the other guy - get the soil tested.

Answer 6

there is no problem with eating your vegetables IF you don't detect any leaf necrosis on tomatoes.. tomatoes is a plant indicator and sensitive to organic compounds if so,..that would indicate excessive PPM (parts per million) of antifreeze....for your peace of mind, oil and gas are natural compounds of the ancient earth and these organic compounds break down fairly easy....i can guess your driveway had components of crush rock and clay soils... the soil ions of this type of soils readily bound organic compounds and plants usually can not break this bond , therefore, there may be oil in the soil, but not in the plants

Answer 7

Under ANY circumstances, the veggies are much healther than what you buy in a store(unless you used a lot of chemical fertilizers. The rain has washed whatever was on the driveway waaaay down into the ground by now.

Answer 8

Drive your car over the plants and say you forgot it was a garden now instead of an OLD DRIVEWAY.

Don't even eat that crap/ You'll have mutant babies!

Answer 9

for starters, if no person's using it, turn it off! by using this I propose, while you're unlikely to circulate away a room on your place, turn off the gentle in that room. purchase potential saving bulbs, they produce the comparable quantity of sunshine whilst using much less electricity. whilst paying for a clean electric gadget, attempt to discover one with potential action picture star on it. those contraptions use much less electricity than their huge-unfold opposite numbers. whilst and if achieveable on your community, recycle. the greater human beings recycle, the fewer desire there will be for production of latest ingredients. whilst using, in the journey that your compelled to attend in line say at a stress by using, turn off your automobile till your finally allowed to moved foward. an rather super proportion of gasoline intake is whilst idling in site visitors or waiting in a line. it quite is stable thank you to guard gasoline slightly pay attention and there. yet use undemanding sense lol do not do this at each and every supply up gentle, appropriate place is rush hour site visitors, once you're caught in one spot without moving for many minutes.

Answer 10

I certainly wouldn't eat it, a oil and gas and antifreeze and cucumbers don't mix