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Did you mean to eat toxic hazardous industrial waste today?
Well, you ate it whether you wanted to or not. Products in every class, although not every product within the class, of fertilizer, soil amendment, and liming material in the United States are made from hazardous waste or contain hazardous constituents.[1] Not all fertilizers[2] are contaminated with hazardous substances but exposed persons are not informed that these substances are present, or that they are toxic because labeling and disclosure laws do not require, or in some states even allow, that information to be available. Yet, because of fertilizer's beneficial properties most people assume that these products are benign. Therefore, unlabeled hazardous constituents in all forms of fertilizer mean that consumers and handlers of these products are getting more than they bargained for, or consented to.
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Sources
The hazardous waste used in fertilizers comes from industrial processes such as foundries 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. Manufacturers’ employees, retailers’ employees, applicators, farmers, and consumers are exposed to hazardous substances during manufacture, transport, sale and use.
Uses
Waste-derived products are used in home gardens, parks, golf courses, and agriculture such as grains, hay and alfalfa, fruits and vegetables. Further, it is the nature of fertilizer that it does not stay where it is applied; it disseminates widely into the environment. During and after use, the hazardous substances runoff to water where they are taken up by aquatic life and thereby enter the human food chain. Some contaminated particles become windblown, some leach into groundwater, and some remain in the topsoil where they contribute to human exposure and environmental contamination.[3]
Contaminants
The waste-derived fertilizer may contain any number of hazardous substances such as lead, arsenic, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, beryllium, and/or chemicals such as radionuclides and persistent organics (e.g., dioxins and furans) that provide no nutritive value to the plant and introduce these constituents into the greater ecosystem. Several studies have shown that heavy metals are present in the parts per million range, and occasionally as high as parts per thousand, in fertilizers produced from recycled industrial wastes.[4]
Exposure Pathways
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. Studies confirm that the hazardous constituents are taken up by plants grown on fertilized land or to which the fertilizer is applied thereby entering the food chain.[5] The toxic load passes directly to humans when the contaminated plants are eaten or indirectly when the fertilizer is applied to crops used as animal fodder or on grazing land.[6] Some hazardous substances also accumulate in soil because they do not leach or disintegrate.
Harms
Many of the substances found in waste-derived fertilizers are defined as toxic and/or hazardous by several federal laws and many state laws.[7] Many are known or suspected carcinogens. Some are also known or suspected endocrine disruptors. Unlike carcinogens where “the dose makes the poison”, endocrine disruptors can do their damage through a single exposure at a critical point in the fetal development. Some effects of endocrine disruption include genital abnormalities such as undescended testicles, extremely small penises, and transgenerational effects, such as behavioral changes and diminished fertility.[8]
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 Scientists now estimate that humans’ greatest exposure to hazardous substances such as mercury, cadmium, and dioxin is through food.[9]
Human exposure and environmental contamination is not confined to only agricultural areas because non-farm specialty fertilizers, used for residential and recreational landscaping, are also produced from hazardous industrial waste. Use of these products is extensive and increasing, thereby exposing sensitive populations such as infants, toddlers, and pregnant women to known or suspected carcinogens, mutagens, and endocrine disruptors.[10]
Scientists estimate that for some substances, such as cadmium, these cumulative exposures have already reached the body’s defense capacity.[11] Consequently, for diseases like cancer, where “the dose makes the poison” removing the greatest source of exposure may be a significant step to reducing cancer risk. Some toxic constituents in fertilizers are also persistent so they remain in the soil for decades or centuries. Thus, when assessing risk from exposure “it is necessary to consider cumulative changes over decades of application.”[12] Even so, the risk to infants, fetuses, pregnant women, or other sensitive populations has never been assessed.
A distinguished panel of scientists issued The Wingspread Consensus Statement in 1991, attested that the weight of the evidence indicates humans are in jeopardy and are perhaps already affected in major ways.[13] The world's leading scientists in endocrine disruption called for measures to not only ban persistent chemicals but also reduce exposure to chemicals already in the environment and prevent the release of new products with similar characteristics.[14]
It is clear that hazardous waste does not belong in fertilizer -- the hazardous substances do not provide plant nutritive value[15] and may actually make the fertilizer less effective by reducing the bio-availability of nutritive substances such as zinc.[16]
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One-stop Shopping It's sometimes hard enough just finding the information you need. For a newcomer to the subject, the amount and complexity of the material can be overwhelming. We do not take a position on the efficacy or value of synthetic fertilizers, or synthetic vs. organic fertilizers. Our position is simple - toxic hazardous 'waste' does not belong in fertilizer, soil amendments, and/or liming material and until this practice is stopped the public has a right to know exactly what material is in the product they buy and the risk they assume thereby. |
More than just a repository Even something as mundane as the placement of a comma in a statute can hold dire consequences - the exemption of tons of toxic waste from regulation. Here you will find documents and links, plus commentary and questions to assist you to understand the material faster and more effectively. Whether you're a legislator, activist, lawyer, or concerned individual, you will find interesting and relevant information here. |
Footnotes
[2] For simplicity, the term 'fertilizer', unless specified otherwise, is used to include fertilizer, soil amendment, and liming material.
[3] Lawrence R. Curtis & Brian W. Smith, Dept of Env. and Molecular Toxicology, Or. State U., Heavy Metals in Fertilizers: Considerations for Setting Regulations in Oregon 3 Fig.1 (Aug. 2, 2002) at http://wwwoda.state.or.us/pesticide/pubform/FertHeavyMet.pdf.
[4] Office of Solid Waste , U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 747-R-98-003 Background Document on Fertilizer Use, Contaminants and Regulation ii (1999), available at http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/fertilizer.pdf.
[5] Several studies indicate that soil Ph level and soil type (i.e. clay, humus) significantly effect plant uptake. E.g., Lawrence R. Curtis & Brian W. Smith, Dept of Env. and Molecular Toxicology, Or. State U., Heavy Metals in Fertilizers: Considerations for Setting Regulations in Oregon 2, 4 (Aug. 2, 2002) at http://wwwoda.state.or.us/pesticide/pubform/FertHeavyMet.pdf.
[6] Office of Solid Waste, U.S. EPA, Estimating Risk from Contaminants Contained in Agricultural Fertilizers: Draft Report 5-36 (1999).
[7] E.g., 40 C.F.R. § 261.24 (2006).
[8] Theo Colborn et. al, Our Stolen Future 171 (Plume/Penguin 1997).
[9] Nat’l Inst. of Health, Nat’l Inst. of Envtl Health Sci., Report on Carcinogens, Cadmium and Cadmium Compounds 7 (9th ed. 2000), available at http:/ehis.niehs.nih.gov/roc/ninth/cadmium.pdf (on file with author); also Carol Dansereau et al., Wash. Toxics Coalition, Visualizing Zero: Eliminating Persistent Pollution in Washington State 11 (2000) (citing Schecter, Personal Communication, Ctr. for Health, Env’t, and Justice (1999)), available at http://www.watoxics.org/PBTreport.htm.
[10] See Wash. State Dep’t of Ecology, Pub. 00-03-054 Proposed Strategy to Continually Reduce Persistent, Bioaccumulative Toxins (PBTs) in Washington State 5 (2000).
[11] Magnus Piscator, Dietary Exposure to Cadmium and Health Effects: Impact of Environmental Changes, 63 Envtl. Health Perspectives 131 (1985).
[12] Curtis, supra note 2, at 1.
[13] Theo Colborn et. al, Our Stolen Future 170 (Plume/Penguin 1997).
[14] Theo Colborn et. al, Our Stolen Future 264 (Plume/Penguin 1997).
[15] U.S. EPA, Zinc Fertilizers Made From Recycled Hazardous Secondary Materials: Final Rule, 67 Fed. Reg. 48,393, 48,403 (July 24, 2002).
[16] Erika Schreder, Wash. Toxics Coalition, Holding the Bag: How Toxic Waste in Fertilizer Fails Farmers and Gardeners 4 (2001).
