Food Rights Network Finds Contaminants in "Organic Biosolids Compost"

WARNING! Sewage sludge is toxic. Food should not be grown in "biosolids." Join the Food Rights Network.

Food Rights Network Finds Contaminants in "Organic Biosolids Compost" reports on the announcement of August 10, 2010, finding (PBDE) flame retardants, nonylphenol detergent breakdown products, and the antibacterial agent triclosan in the sewage sludge product distributed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission beginning in 2007 as "organic biosolids compost."

Independent Scientific Testing Finds Toxic Contaminants in San Francisco's Free 'Organic Biosolids Compost'

Below, in its entirety with relevant links to articles in SourceWatch, is the news release issued on August 10, 2010, by the Food Rights Network:

PBDE Flame Retardants and Triclosan Found in Tests Conducted for the Food Rights Network (FRN)

FRN Will Provide Test Results to the Public Utilities Commissioners at a City Hall Meeting, 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 10, 2010

"Independent tests of sewage sludge-derived compost from the Synagro CVC plant -- distributed free to gardeners since 2007 by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in their "organic biosolids compost" giveaway program -- have found appreciable concentrations of contaminants with endocrine-disruptive properties. These contaminants include polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants, nonylphenol detergent breakdown products, and the antibacterial agent triclosan. The independent tests were conducted for the Food Rights Network by Dr. Robert C. Hale of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences."

"PBDEs are persistent and bioaccumulate in the environment, and elevated levels have been found in California citizens. The average total of the PBDE congeners tested in the compost was 731 ng/g (or ppb - parts per billion) (dry weight basis). The congeners found closely match those of the PentaBDE formulation, which are the congeners most commonly found in human tissue and wildlife. PentaBDE has been banned in Europe and its manufacture was voluntarily ended in the US in 2004, yet exposure continues."

"The antibiotic triclosan, another suspected endocrine disruptor, was also found in the sewage sludge "compost," at an average of 1,312 ng/g (or ppb). Last week, the Centers for Disease Control updated their National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals and noted that triclosan levels in people increased by over 41% between just the years 2004 and 2006. Also last week, a scientific paper showed that triclosan from sewage sludge can be taken up by soybean plants and translocated into the beans themselves, then consumed by people and animals."

Dr. Michael Hansen, Senior Scientist with Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports magazine), has reviewed the study conducted by Dr. Hale for the Food Rights Network. Dr. Hansen told the Food Rights Network: "Giving out sludge-based 'compost' that contains PBDEs, triclosan, and who knows what other toxins, while calling it 'organic compost,' knowing it would be applied to school and home gardens, is wrong on a number of levels. Given the toxic compounds that have been found by Dr. Hale in this San Francisco sludge product, the 'compost' giveaway should be permanently ended by the City of San Francisco."

"John Stauber is a co-founder of and adviser to the Food Rights Network, and author of the 1995 book Toxic Sludge Is Good for You that first exposed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) sewage sludge disposal scam of renaming toxic sludge "biosolids" and encouraging its use to grow food. Today, fifteen years later, half of all sewage sludge is spread on farmland. Said Stauber: 'In the face of a public protest on March 4, 2010, the City of San Francisco temporarily suspended its toxic sludge giveaway. The staff of the Public Utilities Commission and Mayor Gavin Newsom have allowed Bay Area residents to become guinea pigs in a heinous scam that has fooled gardeners into thinking they were receiving real organic compost for their gardens, when they were tricked into allowing the sewage sludge industry to use their gardens as a waste dump. This must stop.' "

"John Mayer, Bay Area resident and researcher for the Food Rights Network, stated: 'The sludge tests that the PUC released in late July, 2010, are grossly insufficient, relying on outdated science and regulatory standards, and limited to 'priority pollutants,' a list developed more than 30 years ago. As the Center for Food Safety noted recently, the PUC failed to test for nanoparticles, 'antibiotics and their degradation products, disinfectants, other antimicrobials, steroids, hormones, and other drugs present in sewage sludge as indicated by EPA's 2009 Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey.' Our ongoing investigation of this issue has shown that the Office of the Mayor and the staff of the PUC have colluded with the national sewage sludge lobby, Synagro corporation and other private interests to promote and defend growing food in sewage sludge. We call upon the five PUC Commissioners to put this issue on their public agenda for September, and to stop allowing sludge politics to trump health, environment and the precautionary principle in San Francisco.'"

Articles and resources

External articles

• John Upton, Compost analysis revealed nothing new, city says, San Francisco Examiner, August 10, 2010
• Study Finds Contaminants In SF Free Compost, CBS 5, KPIX, San Francisco, CA, August 10, 2010
• John Upton, Anti-sewage compost crusader to speak at City Hall, August 10, 2010.
• Sophie Lambert, When Will SF's Toxic Compost Controversy End?, San Francisco Appeal, August 10, 2010.
• Alison Hawkes, Test results of city sludge don’t satisfy critics, SF Public Press/Way Out West, August 18, 2010.

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