50% Of Human Sewage Produced

[Guest guest]

This is what was often used from the family's outhouse on the summer gardens

in years gone by... It is not so much the human waste that is the

problem... It is the chemicals that are now used to clean the toilet that is

the biggest toxin here.

----- Original Message -----

From: Lashanna Small <lashannasmall@...>

50% Of Human Sewage Produced

> Yearly Is Spread On Cropland

> By Mulvihill

> 7-12-1

>

> NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Biosolids, the treated sewage sludge that is

> spread on cropland as a fertilizer, contain ''high concentrations of an

> environmentally persistent class of organic pollutants'' called brominated

> diphenyl ethers (BDEs), study results indicate.

>

> And the researchers report that they found BDEs in 87% of fish sampled

from

> Virginia waters, with one fish close to setting a world record for

> contaminant levels.

>

> ``This finding indicates that significant environmental release of these

> pollutants is occurring in the United States and that humans may be

exposed

> to them through their diet,'' according to Dr. C. Hale and

colleagues

> from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point.

>

> BDEs are added to polyurethane, the synthetic foam used to make seat

> cushions and many other materials, as a fire retardant. The European

> Commission plans to ban BDEs due to mounting concerns about their

potential

> health risks and a recent study that found concentrations of BDEs on the

> rise in human breast milk, Hale explained in an interview with Reuters

> Health.

>

> ``What's new here is the fact that BDEs are a persistent

pollutant--meaning

> that it does not readily break down in the environment--and they have not

> been well studied,'' Hale told Reuters Health.

>

> Notably, Hale pointed out that concentrations in US biosolids exceed those

> typically found in European biosolids by a factor of 10 to 100.

>

> In the study, published in the July 12th issue of the journal Nature, the

> researchers analyzed 11 samples of treated biosolids from California, New

> York, Virginia and land.

>

> The total concentration of BDEs in the biosolids was 1,100 to 2,290

> micrograms per kilogram of dry weight, ``suggesting that input was high

and

> consistent, regardless of the region of origin and irrespective of

> pre-application treatment,'' the authors write.

>

> The researchers found BDEs in 87% of 334 fish from Virginia waters that

they

> tested. In fact, a carp from one stream in Virginia contained 47,900

> micrograms per kilogram of total BDEs, ``rivaling the highest fillet

burdens

> reported in the world so far,'' the report indicates.

>

> ``The jury is still out about how toxic BDEs are, but the fact

remains--they

> do bio-accumulate and they are persistent,'' Hale said.

>

> Hale also noted that BDEs are ``quite similar in structure to the drug

> thyroxine'' and said that the chemicals may mimic the drug's activity in

> humans.

>

> Thyroxine is used in the treatment of thyroid disorders and helps regulate

> growth and cell metabolism.

>

> Over half the sewage sludge produced annually in the United States is

> applied to land, amounting to roughly 4 million tons in 1998, the authors

> note.

>

> SOURCE: Nature 2001;412:140-141.