Did you mean to eat toxic hazardous industrial waste today?
Well, you ate it whether you wanted to or not. Some fertilizers and soil conditioners used in the United States are made from hazardous waste. Not all fertilizers are contaminated with hazardous substances but there are no federal or informative state labeling requirements so consumers can not tell which fertilizers are clean (See the Federal and State Law tabs - read: Federalism for a comparative analysis of the State's Fertilizer Acts).
The waste-derived fertilizer may contain any number of hazardous substances such as lead, arsenic, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, beryllium, and/or dioxin (See the Science tab). Many of the substances found in waste-derived fertilizers are known or suspected carcinogens. Some are also known or suspected endocrine disruptors (See the Health tab).
The hazardous waste used in fertilizers comes from industrial processes such as foundaries and metal casting, and from the pollution control devices on steel mill smoke stacks. If the EPA did not exempt this material from regulation it would be disposed of in a hazardous waste disposal site, or treated prior to disposal in a solid waste disposal site, or used in products such as bricks and concrete. (See the Process Flow tab).
Waste-derived products are used in home gardens, parks, golf courses, and agriculture such as grains, hay and alfalfa, fruits and vegetables. It has been established through controlled scientific study and actual growing conditions that, under certain conditions, the hazardous substances are taken up into plants and plants vary in their vulnerability to particular substances (See the Science tab). Some hazardous substances also accumulate in soil because they do not leach or disintegrate.
When humans or animals eat the food, the hazardous substances pass into the consumer’s body. Some hazardous substances, in addition to being toxic, are also persistent and bioaccumulative (PBT) which means they accumulate in the host without dissipation for long time periods. Thus, the more PBTs consumed, the more contaminated the consumer because the toxins are being consumed faster than they are excreted (See the Health tab).