HUMANURE:HUMAN WASTE USED AS FERTILIZER

[Guest guest]

National Post entitled: UBC warns of cancer path: from sewage to farms to you

Records show 20% of fertilizers violate microbe limits by Margaret Munro.

VANCOUVER - Health officials are being urged to stop using treated human

sewage on grazing land because of the danger of cancer-causing toxins getting

into the food chain.

A report by researchers at the University of British Columbia for the

province's medical health officers warns that the toxins from human sewage --

biosolids -- could accumulate in grazing cattle and certain vegetables such

as cucumbers.

And federal records obtained by the National Post show almost 20% of

fertilizers and composts made from human sewage and other matter, and used

widely throughout the country on lawns and gardens, are in violation of

federal limits for microbial contamination.

The UBC researchers are recommending that municipal governments stop using

biosolids to fertilize grazing land until more research can be done.

Grazing cattle and cows swallow not only grass but some of the dirt it grows

in. Cows can eat almost a kilogram of soil a day and if that soil contains a

lot of biosolids, contaminants such as dioxins and

furans -- which can cause cancer -- could build up in the animals' tissues

and end up in the human food chain when people eat beef.

Vancouver trucks close to 50,000 tonnes of biosolids a year into the B.C.

interior, where much of it is spread on ranchland as fertilizer.

The report says there is a great need for further data on the relationship

between biosolids application and its impact on agricultural land. In the

meantime, it recommends against using biosolids on grazing land.

Federal records also point to problems with microbial contamination of

fertilizers and composts made from human sewage, animal manure and food

waste. These fertilizers are sold across the country.

The records show 18% of fertilizers or composts tested last year were in

violation of federal limits for microbial contamination.

" Just imagine if you spread that stuff on your lawn and then a little kid

goes by and picks it up and chews on it, " said Dr. Rotstein,

president of the Canadian Infectious Diseases Society.

Inspectors from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which enforces

the Fertilizers Act, tested 55 fertilizers and composts. Of 21 tested for

fecal coliforms, 24% had levels above the allowable limit of 1,000 fecal

coliforms per gram of compost or fertilizer.

And 15% of 34 fertilizers tested for salmonella were over the limit set for

that bacterium, which is three salmonella for every four grams of fertilizer

or compost.

Fecal coliforms and salmonella are considered " indicator " species because

they are such hardy microbes. If they survive sewage treatment and composting

processes, so might more serious pathogens.

CFIA officials refuse to identify the " non-compliant " fertilizers and

compost. And they will provide no details on how high the bacterial counts

were. Nor are they keen to discuss whether more monitoring is needed given

the 18% non-compliance rate.

" I'd prefer not to comment on that, " says Dr. Kate Billingsley, acting

national manager of the CFIA's fertilizer section.

Dr. Billingsley says there is a " negative bias " in the statistics because

inspectors target material they suspect might have problems.

She said non-compliant products are held back and returned to their producer

for further treatment or disposal. If they come from outside the country, she

says, they are sent back. Some fertilizers, such as Milogranite, are produced

from the sewage sludge of U.S. cities. mmunro@...

http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020520/282281.html &

qs=biosolids

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There is another article from the National Post dated May 20, 2002 and

entitled: Fields of sewage. New research suggests composted human waste may

not be safe for use as fertilizer by Margaret Munro.

Thousands of tonnes of fertilizer from sewage plants enrich ranchland. It

contains nutrients that are good for the soil, but also passes toxins through

cattle into the human food chain.

Ranchers insist their hay has never grown better. Golf course operators swear

it does wonders for their greens. And in Kelowna, B.C., people can hardly

flush their toilets fast enough to keep up

with demand for the dark, fragrant compost made from that city's human sewage.

" It's become quite fashionable to use it, " chuckles Wilma Schellenberger,

past-president of the Kelowna Garden Club, who smothered her lawn with

compost-enriched soil.

" It came back wonderfully green, " says Mrs. Schellenberger, whose flowers are

also thriving on the composted sewage the city sells for as much as $21.50 a

cubic metre.

Such talk is music to the ears of municipal officials responsible for the

human and industrial waste flushed down the country's toilets and drains.

The rivers of sewage produce mountains of sludge -- or biosolids, as

engineers prefer to call the material. The engineers like to think they have

hit on the ideal disposal scheme: Transform the sludge into fertilizers and

compost, then get farmers and gardeners to plough it back into the land.

To listen to municipal officials talk, they are turning a sow's ear (and far

worse) into a silk purse.

" It's full of nutrients that are good for the soil, " says Theresa Duynstee,

biosolids recycling manager for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, who

is echoed by sludge managers across the country.

Toronto is about to start churning fertilizer pellets out of the

foul-smelling goo extracted from sewage at a new $23-million plant. In

Moncton, N.B., and dozens of other towns and cities, human sewage

is finding its way into compost and topsoil. And in Vancouver, the putrid

waste that flows into the region's newest treatment plant comes out as black,

chunky material that municipal officials have

christened Nutrifor.

Close to 50,000 tonnes of the stuff is trucked into the B.C. Interior every

year and used to reclaim mine sites and enrich ranchlands. And poplar trees,

destined to be used to produce toilet paper, are

thriving on biosolid-enriched islands in the Fraser River.

Vancouver's regional government has also been busy making plans to use

Nutrifor in the city. The logic is simple: What is good for cattle and trees

is good for the gardens of folks who produce the

stuff in the first place.

But a recent report from the University of British Columbia, prepared for the

province's medical-health officers, has prompted a sudden change of plans.

The report warns that dioxins and furans might concentrate in vegetables such

as cucumbers and in cattle munching grass grown on land fertilized with

sewage biosolids. " It is recommended at this

time that biosolids application not be permitted on land used to grow plants

of the cucumber family or on grazing lands, " the UBC report concludes.

The report, which was presented to waste-water specialists a few weeks ago,

shocked regional officials and managers who last year sent 45% of their

biosolids to ranches in the B.C. Interior.

" We were stunned, " says Kadota, head of the Vancouver region's biosolids

program, who fears his silk purse is turning back into a sow's ear.

Given the conclusions of the UBC report, Kadota says the plan to get city

dwellers using Nutrifor as a soil enhancer has been shelved. " It's definitely

on hold , " says Kadota. And the practice of using

Nutrifor on grazing land in the B.C. Interior is up in the air. The regional

government, he says, is awaiting advice from the province's medical-health

officers, which is expected in the next few months.

" We're looking for clarity, " Kadota says.

But clarity is awfully elusive in the murky world of sewage treatment and

disposal.

For every official who says biosolids are harmless, there is a critic warning

of toxins and microbial pathogens. And for every report suggesting sludge can

be safely used, there is another raising

concerns.

The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that processed and composted

sludge is a huge improvement over the untreated sewage that farmers have been

using on their lands throughout the ages. Many towns and cities in Canada

still spread raw and partly treated sewage, which contains high levels of

bacteria, viruses and parasitic worms, on farmland.

Processed and composted sewage sludge is better because it is treated, often

at high temperatures, to kill pathogens.

That is not to say the stuff is clean. It can contain bacteria -- a level up

to 1,000 fecal coliforms is allowed in every gram of sludge-based fertilizer

or compost sold in Canada. And there are

traces of almost every toxin one can think of: selenium from anti-dandruff

shampoos, manganese used in additives used in gasoline, copper that leaches

out of household pipes, brominated diphenyl

ethers (BDEs) from flame retardants. And perhaps most worrisome, traces of

furans and dioxins, cancer-causing toxins that can be produced in tiny

amounts by a multitude of sources ranging from

textile dyes to steel mills and hospital incinerators.

Provincial and municipal officials say the pathogens and toxins are under

control. They like to point to recycling programs that have reduced levels of

everything from the mercury flushed down dentists' sinks to paints and

dry-cleaning fluids that go straight into drains.

Sewage sludge does, however, vary considerably from one place to the next.

Not only does the stuff pouring down toilets differ from city to city, so do

treatment processes.

In Toronto processed sludge rolls over hot plates and is heated to close to

100C, forming pellets that resemble gravel. " It's hot enough to kill any

bacteria, " says Kiyoshi Oka, Toronto's senior engineer

in charge of biosolids. But pellets have their own drawbacks. They can start

smouldering if not stored or handled properly.

Toronto had hoped to be marketing and using its new fertilizer in city

gardens by now, as part of a plan to combat the stigma surrounding the tiny

pellets, Oka says. But controversy over a

combustion problem with pellet dust at a loading dock last year and

regulatory problems over labeling have delayed production. Pellet production

is now slated to begin before summer.

Oka says sewage biosolids are one of the most studied materials around. And

many people would be surprised, were they to read the fine print on their

fertilizer boxes, that they are already using pellets made from sewage

sludge. Several U.S. cities, such as Milwaukee, Wisc., which has been

producing the product Milorganite for years, produce sludge fertilizers

widely used on golf courses and

sold in Canada for use on home gardens.

Oka, like most people familiar with sludge treatment, insists there is no

health or environmental risk in sprinkling the sludge-based composts and

fertilizers on lawns and gardens as long as they meet

limits that have been set for pathogens and heavy metals.

But federal records show plenty of fertilizers on the market are in violation

of those limits. Inspectors from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA),

which enforces the Fertilizers Act, tested

55 fertilizers and composts for bacterial contamination during the past year.

Of 21 products tested for fecal coliforms, 24% had levels above the limit.

And 15% of the 34 fertilizers tested for salmonella

were over the limit. Fecal coliforms and salmonella are considered

" indicators " because they are such hardy microbes. If they survive the sewage

treatment process, so might more serious pathogens.

CFIA officials refuse to name the non-compliant products. And they will

provide no details on the height of the bacterial counts. But they say the

non-compliant products were detained and returned to their producers for

further treatment or disposal.

None of which is very reassuring to people such as Dr. Rotstein,

president of the Canadian Infectious Diseases Society, who teaches at

McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. " I am not convinced about the quality

control, " says Dr. Rotstein, who would like to see more debate and study

before more pelletized or composted sewage sludge is scattering in urban

areas.

" That's a problem when you live in populated areas. Anything can happen.

" I don't think we should do this until we know it is perfectly safe, " says

Dr. Rotstein, who was recently asked to serve on a committee being formed by

Toronto Public Health to review the safety of biosolids, given that city's

plan to market 25,000 tonnes of fertilizer pellets a year.

A similar exercise recently led by Kay Teschke, a professor at UBC's School

of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, concluded spreading sludge-based

fertilizers and compost on home gardens is not a problem.

" I wouldn't hesitate to use it myself, " she says.

The much bigger concern, she and her colleagues report, is using biosolids to

fertilize agricultural land.

Teschke's group dug through dozens of studies and reports from around the

world trying to determine whether biosolids could lead to problems with

dioxins and furans, which can accumulate in living tissues and have been

linked to cancer.

It is well known that sewage sludge contains trace levels -- parts per

trillion -- of dioxins and furans. But there is limited data on the fate of

the toxins once the sludge is spread around, the UBC group says in its report

prepared for the province's medical-health officers. It notes that several

studies have shown concentrations of dioxins and furans in the soil increase

measurably when biosolids are

applied, and the contamination persists over time.

There is little evidence they build up in leafy vegetables, tree fruits, peas

and beans and harvested forage crops. But experiments in which plants were

grown in soil highly contaminated with dioxins and furans have shown the

toxins can accumulate in plants of the cucumber family.

Their report stresses the " great need for further data on the relationship

between biosolids application to agricultural land. " In the meantime, it

recommends against using biosolids on land used to

grow plants of the cucumber family or on grazing lands, where furans and

dioxins swallowed by cattle could end up in meat and milk.

Teschke says they are recommending the province launch a research program to

study whether dioxins and furans are being taken up in cattle grazing on

ranchland treated with Vancouver's biosolids. And to hold back any meat until

tests prove it is safe, she says.

And if the research fails to prove the material can be used safely, Vancouver

might have to come up with another use for sludge that is not about to stop

rolling out of its sewage plants.

" Perhaps we could make bricks out of it, " Kadota says. mmunro@...

Copyright © 2002 National Post Online

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Dr. Rotstein

Professor of Medicine / Infectious Disease Consultant

E-mail: crotstei@...

E-mail: crotstei@...

McMaster University

Hamilton Health Sciences Centre,

711 Concession St.,

Hamilton ON

L8V 1C3

Canadian Infectious Disease Society (CIDS)

http://cids.medical.org

===============

Dr. Kate Billingsley

Biotechnology Officer / Acting National Manager

Bus:(613) 225-2342 (4657)

Fax:(613) 228-6629

E-mail: billingsleyk@...

Fertilizer Section

Canadian Food Inspection Agency

59 Camelot Dr

Ottawa, ON

K1A 0Y9