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. 2023 Oct 17;13:17644. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-44685-4

Table 3.

Results of farmed and wild heavy metals concentrations in samples collected from the base of sugar kelp blades, and in relation to relevant industry standards (see Table 2). Horizontal dashes indicate no standard.

AsT iAs Cd Pb* Hg
Base of blade concentrations in dried samples
 Samples that exceeded maximum contaminant level
  Farmed 88% 0% 88% 0% 0%
  Wild 96% 0% 80% 0% 6%
 % of maximum allowable dose level
  Farmed 34% 164% 13%
  Wild 39% 198% 13%
 % of no significant risk level
  Farmed 1.12% 5.4%
  Wild 1.03% 6.6%
 Grams of dried kelp safe to eat
  Farmed No standard 89 3.0 18.5 7.7
  Wild No standard 97 2.6 15 7.7
Base of blade concentrations converted to wet weight
 Samples that exceeded maximum contaminant level
  Farmed 0% 0% 0%
  Wild 0% 0% 0%
 % of maximum allowable dose level
  Farmed 0.29% 1.4% 0.13%
  Wild 0.33% 1.6% 0.10%
 % of no significant risk level
  Farmed 0.01% 0.05%
  Wild < 0.01% 0.05%
 Grams of wet kelp safe to eat
 Farmed No standard > 10,000 345 2000 769
  Wild No standard > 1 million 303 2000 1000