PFAS Toxin Transfer
Sewage Sludge Wastes and America’s Food Future – Simply Put
- Sewage sludge and biosolids – the solid and liquid remains from wastewater treatment plants – are marketed as a landscape and lawn care fertilizer soil amendment to farmers, home gardeners, playgrounds and parks;
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2018 report knowingly states, “Unable to Assess the Impact of Hundreds of Unregulated Pollutants In Land-Applied Biosolids on Human Health” and further;
- 2019 EPA reports “discover” releases of hazardous substances from Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) are inaccurate, thus the public is not receiving reliable information about environmental conditions affecting human health.
- The EPA only regulates 10 heavy metals and two indicator bacterias in sludge/biosolids; a national survey of contaminants found in sewage sludge wastes include 27 heavy metals, dozens of pharmaceuticals, several steroids and hormones, and highly toxic flame retardants, which bioaccumulate in soil, plants, and animals.
- PFAS – Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl – are man-made, flame retardant “forever chemicals” that are bioaccumulative and toxic at low concentrations levels.
- The use of PFAS in thousands of commercial and industrial applications and products has resulted in detectable concentrations in sewage sludge wastes found in drinking water, soil and vegetation throughout the country;
- WEF – the “Water Environmental Federation” sewage membership organization – recognizes that PFAS contamination is transferred into communities via solid and liquid sewage sludge wastes which contaminate air, water, soil, and foods.
- Farms throughout the nation are experiencing PFAS contamination of livestock and plants that we consume from years of sewage sludge/biosolids use as a “fertilizer”, creating long-term implications to our food, water and communities.
- In June 2019, FDA – Food & Drug Administration – confirmed PFAS in food, including meat, seafood, dairy products, fruits and vegetables from sewage sludge/biosolids.
- Lack of national leadership for testing requirements and enforcement of hazardous chemicals like PFAS – linked to both solid and liquid sewage sludge/biosolids – has forced states, including Maine and New York, to create stricter regulations for sludge/biosolids use. Where is YOUR state regulations?
- Lack of national leadership regulations of hazardous chemicals like PFAS will create “throwaway zones”: communities with less political clout or willpower will become the dumping grounds for America’s industrial waste.
- America’s food, farms, families and future deserves better. Stronger regulations of sewage sludge/biosolids; invest in alternative uses; control chemical contamination BEFORE it reaches our waste stream.
Information Complied: United Sludge Free Alliance/usludgefree.org/610-823-8258
Downloadable PDF
PFAS IN YOUR FOOD, WATER, AND COMMUNITY FROM SEWAGE WASTES
original content from United Sludge Free Alliance
Flame retardants in your fruit? Stain-resistant chemicals in your spaghetti sauce? Non-stick compounds in your night-time milk? Waterproofing in your wax beans? Holy crap – PFAS has entered our food supply via sewage sludge wastes spread where we eat, drink and live!
As evidence mounts that the very foods we turn to for nourishment and sustenance are being contaminated – everything from our leafy greens to our tofu to our milk and meat – an inevitable link between the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS compounds have been delivered to the fields, gardens, soils and rivers via sewage sludge/biosolids wastes marketed as a fertilizer and irrigation source. Regardless of where you live, our national food and water supply – YOUR food and water supply – is under consistent threat of contamination from years of irresponsible industry influence and bureaucratic municipal hyper-focus on “the bottom line”.
Super simple – if the PFAS is in the sewage sludge waste, it is being delivered to our food and water. Even the dullest of minds can grasp that the ineffective EPA’s “strict testing requirements” of nine heavy metals and two indicator bacteria required for the use of sewage sludge to be declared a “fertilizer” or a “compost” is laughable. This simple fact: pouring our solid and liquid hazardous waste where we eat, drink and live is how our food and water gets contaminated. When solid and liquid sewage sludge/biosolids waste is poured on soil and water where we live and where our food and water comes from , a.k.a. “the environment”, we have introduced some of the most toxic chemicals that we have created on to our tables, to our homes and into our bodies.
Of the thousands of unregulated chemicals that wash down the drain, of immediate concern are a class of chemical compounds known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). PFAS chemicals are a family of compounds used in fire-fighting foams, flame retardants, fabric water-proofing and stain-resistant and cooking supplies like Teflon. Even in low doses, PFAS chemicals have been linked to health effects including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high-cholesterol, asthma and ulcerative colitis. PFAS exposure has been linked to mothers experiencing pregnancy-induced hypertension while babies experience low birth weight and weakened childhood immunity. Most importantly, PFAS chemicals do not break down in the environment, they are bioaccumulative – build-up over time, little by little, in soil, human and animal tissues – have been found in all American’s blood (including newborn babies) AND have now been confirmed in food and water supplies across the nation.
Where do all the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, antibiotics and toxic pollutants go after they are flushed to the waste water treatment plant? No “sludge magic” ( a term used by the industry ) – it goes into your food and water supply when the sludge is land applied or used for irrigation. Yet again, short-term thinking and distorted marketing efforts has creating another “profits over people” problem.
PFAS IN YOUR FOOD FROM SEWAGE SLUDGE/BIOSOLIDS “FERTILIZER”
How did PFAS saturate our food supply, water sources and our bodies? PFAS is a family of chemicals used in many of our modern conveniences: stain- and water-resistant clothing, nonstick pots and pans, carpets, furniture and firefighting foam. Everything from coatings on carpets and clothing to microwave popcorn bags and fast-food wrappers. The danger of focusing PFAS investigation on specific locations – to see if those communities are “poisoned enough” for state or federal action – is the distraction from the bigger picture: PFAS contamination doesn’t diminish over time, doesn’t go away and has deep, long-term implications to our human and environmental health and safety.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal bureaucratic agency responsible for regulating sewage sludge wastes, have actually recognized that their “regulations” do not protect human health. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) admits that PFAS has contaminated our food and water supply, with sewage sludge wastes recognized as a vehicle for that contamination.
PFAS food contamination is not a concern for the future, it is a present-day fact spread in the same silent way that sewage waste is land applied or used as an irrigation source. Examples are available, tucked away from the general public attention. Contamination levels abound, although consistently dismissed by the very government agencies charged with protecting our food, water and future. With no national testing requirement for PFAS – or any of the other thousands of toxic chemicals mixed into our waste stream – concerns of the quality of our food and water supply are relentlessly dismissed while we witness the tumble of our national health. It seems that both federal agencies – the EPA and FDA – shirk their duty to regulate how much PFAS flame retardants they consider safe for you and your family to consume. If you are what you eat, why would anyone choose to eat industrial, municipal and medical waste?
In June 2019, the FDA announced some testing results for PFAS compounds found in supermarket foods, including meat, fruit and milk. Understanding that the agencies deepest concern is to maintain “public trust”, the testing results varied, recognizing PFAS contamination but stating “no food safety risk.” The report skirted the overall contamination by highlighting that some contamination is site specific to areas of known PFAS contamination pollution. But with no established “safe” consumption amount of a hazardous toxin like PFAS, no testing requirements and no PFAS labeling requirements, what does “no food safety risk” mean? Since our food supply is gathered from all over the nation and the world, are concerned consumers expected to wait until every food is tested to see if there is a contamination? Isn’t it too late to be concerned about PFAS and other contaminants once the product is on the family dinner table?
Sometimes, the spotlight on PFAS contamination has come from the farmers themselves, a few brave souls with the moral fortitude to stand up to the public, corporate and bureaucratic lashing for speaking the truth: our modern, toxic sewage wastes do not belong in our food and water supply. Testing for unregulated contaminants is expensive, specific to each individual contaminant and of zero recourse if an unregulated contaminant is discovered. Big picture tip: this is why the chemicals remain unregulated in an effort to remain unaccountable.
- From 20 years of spreading sewage sludge/biosolids “guaranteed safe” as a soil amendment on his fields, Maine dairy farmer Fred Stone discovered in 2016 that the soil, grass and aquifer – and then the cows and the milk they produced – had high levels of PFAS chemicals. He no longer sells milk as he tries to rescue his animals and recover his family farm.
- Art Schaap, dairy farmer from New Mexico, was forced to euthanize his herd of 4,000 cows after extreme levels of PFAS were found in his dairy’s milk product from water contamination linked to a near-by military base. The animals could not be sold for meat. The farmer losses everything.
- Venetucci Farm in Colorado shut down their farm and let go of their employees after PFAS chemicals were discovered in the water used on their property. Tests showed that PFAS had contaminated every type of food the farm raised, including garlic, spinach, carrots and animal products including eggs, pork and beef.
- Toxic chemical discovered in a Wisconsin wastewater treatment plant’s sludge has prompted a halt to application of the material on nearby farms, raising concerns about how WWTP’s across the state may be spreading the chemical across the landscape.
- Independent testing by some food companies sometimes give cause for rejection of PFAS contaminated products. PFAS contamination in Massachusetts cranberries discovered from independent testing – but “missed” by FDA testing – were rejected by Ocean Spray and incinerated.
When a farm becomes contaminated – whether crops or dairy cows or meat – the farmer has a loss to their lifestyle and a blow to our secure food source. Most farmers do not tst for contamination, including PFAS and are discouraged to do so by bureaucratic agencies. Farmers need industry-resistant information to make informed decisions on the full contamination found in every sewage sludge/biosolids load.
While researchers at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Health study the health effects of chemicals already given a free pass to infiltrate our food, water and environment, many of the approved chemicals like PFAS are known to lower learning and growth in children, lower chances of pregnancy and increase the risk of cancer. If a hazardous chemical is “bioaccumulative” – meaning it builds little by little in the soil, the water, the food and our bodies – can we trust a “risk assessment” approach to our food supply and safety?
Scientific tests show plant uptake from both solid sewage sludge “fertilizer” and liquid effluence used as an irrigation supply, including in directly consumed fruits and vegetables and base products like soybeans. Some scientist seem confused about the concept of “bioaccumulation,” dismiss their own findings and falling into industry-speak of “risk assessment” and “proof of contamination.” One such study, showed that different soils and different crops have different contamination uptake of PFAA’s, a form of PFAS:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es500016s
Although the study offered conflicting opinions of their own work, noting that the plants we consume have bioaccumulative plant uptake, this study also made an effort to dismiss contamination by stating that contamination was “below the limit of quantitation”. In fact, there are no established “safe” levels of PFAS contamination for human health and safety. Ultimately: “This study confirms that the bioaccumulation of PFAA’s from biosolids-amended soils depends strongly on PFAA concentrations, soil properties, the type of crop and analyte.”
Other studies of plant uptake provide evidence that PFAS contaminants, like PBDE’s, have a higher uptake into the body of the plant at lower levels of contamination, similar to the continuous slow-drip we see seeping into our food supply. Different forms of PFAS have difference saturation rates in both soil and water – some are more likely to transfer into soil and some are more likely to transfer into water.
While your home garden should be your refuge from the contamination that surrounds us, be aware of the “compost” you use and your water supply for irrigation. Many “compost” give-aways, municipal “compost facilities” and bagged fertilizers are sewage based. There are no labeling requirements for bagged fertilizer or bulk fertilizers to notify the consumer that the product is made from municipal and industry wastes.
The Minnesota Department of Health studied foods grown in PFAS contaminated water, measuring contamination levels at homes with past or ongoing water contamination. The investigation dove into whether PFAS in water used for yard and garden irrigation resulted in elevated concentrations of PFAS in soil and home-grown produce. In 2010, samples of outdoor tap water, garden soil, and garden produce were collected at homes impacted by the contamination and analyzed for several PFAS. The findings bare repeating:
- PFAS concentrations differed by plant part; many PFAS were highest in florets.
- Results demonstrate PFAS entry into food chain under real-world conditions.
- Forms of PFAS were present in 100% of soil samples, but on this test plot, only PFBA (Perfluorobutanoic acid )was readily translocated to plants.
- PFBA concentration in produce were consistent to the amount of PFBA applied to the garden via watering and the type of produce tested.
These findings, from way back in 2010, are globally relevant, highlighting the increase of multiple PFAS compounds increasingly detected and mobil in water.
Supporting concerns of food contamination from PFAS via irrigation supplies is the 2017 findings from Australian Government Dept. of Defence. The study found a number of variables can influence the uptake of PFAS into plant tissue, including:
- PFAS concentration – the higher the concentrations of PFAS in water, the higher the uptake into the plant tissue.
- Plant type – uptake of PFAS into leafy green vegetables is typically greater than uptake into fruit. Although transfer factors could not be developed, samples of fruit taken during the study had lower concentrations of the four targeted PFAS than vegetables. This finding was consistent with other published plant uptake studies. The plant species studied varied in the rate at which they accumulate PFAS.
- Water Quality – Published literature has indicated that the pH, salinity and temperature of the irrigation water can affect plant PFAS uptake. In this study, the uptake of PFAS into plants irrigated with salty water was lower than in plants irrigated with fresh water.
- Soil Type – The study used a single soil type, with low clay content and low organic matter content. Soils with higher clay and organic matter content could be expected to have lower transfer factors.
“… These recommendations included minimizing the consumption of home grown vegetables irrigated with PFAS-impacted water, or grown in soil irrigated with PFAS-impacted water until further data could be collected.”
By recognizing that multiple farming location, such as California’s Salinas Valley, use both sewage based “biosolids” and sewage based effluence for irrigation, the average consumer can recognize the scope of the PFAS contamination problem and the link to our food supply.
Another consideration of the transfer of contaminants like PFAS into our communities is the use of sewage wastes/biosolids as a landscape “fertilizer”. Communities faced with air, water, or landscape contamination must recognize that children’s health demands special attention including the greater risk to children from certain kinds of exposure to hazardous substances. Of immediate concern is the marketing of landscape, athletic field and lawn care fertilizer options and irrigation that are created from sewage sludge/biosolids. This product makes grass green – and transfers known contamination where we live and play. PFAS is found in the sewage sludge wastes and “biosolids” as well as endocrine disruptors, industrial solvents, antibiotic-resistant genes and pathogens, which can bioaccumulate in soil and plants.
Children play outdoors, often engaging in hand-to-mouth behaviors that increase their potential exposure. Children are shorter than are adults; this means they breathe dust, soil, and vapors close to the ground. Children’s lower body weight and higher intake rate results in a greater dose of hazardous substance per unit of body weight. If toxic exposure levels are high during critical growth stages, the developing body systems of children can sustain permanent damage. Children are especially sensitive and vulnerable to chemicals and pathogens, and their immature immune systems are extremely susceptible to contamination from exposure to toxins. Is your playground and school sludge-free?
THIRSTY FOR A COOL GLASS OF PFAS IN YOUR WATER SUPPLY?
Most of the investigations into the highly toxic PFAS compounds have been associated with water quality and supply. The extent of contamination of American communities water supply is unknown. Although many investigations are linked to fire-fighting foams and military bases creating a site-specific focus, city and municipal water supplies are contaminated by the chemicals from upstream waste water treatment plants as well as run-off from land applied sewage sludge waste and “biosolids” on open spaces including parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, community and home gardens.
PFAS compounds are increasingly found in water supplies throughout the United States, while scientists recognize that they do not break down and bioaccumulate in animal and human tissues. Reuse of contaminated effluence, especially in drought prone communities and states like California and Arizona, promote sewage liquid effluence for irrigation and public water supply. Multiple cities are reintroducing their effluence directly into the drinking water supply with no regulations for testing for known contaminants.
No mystery – if we pour hazardous chemicals in our water supply, our water supply becomes contaminated. Studies from locations as far flung as Uganda recognize PFAS contamination in wastewater, surface water, soil and crops, sighting poor removal of PFAS from the WWTP, and demonstrating PFAS entry into the food chain and drinking water from WWTP effluence. Nationally in the United States, municipalities and water utilities are not required to test for PFAS chemicals. There is no legal obligation to follow the EPA’s guidance. There’s no official PFAS limit in drinking water at this time. Think “Flint” to grasp the level of contamination that chemicals like PFAS are in our drinking supply.
PFAS chemicals at levels above EPA’s suggestions have been found in water supplies in Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. According to some studies, up to 43 states are now known to be affected with PFAS contamination, including drinking water systems serving an estimated 19 million people. Is it in your state or community? If they don’t test for it, they can claim ignorance of contamination.
With lack of a meaningful national standard, some states have pursued policies related to PFAS. Implementing standards for groundwater and surface water is one step toward recognizing the contamination problem but water does not recognize political boundaries. Without a strong national policy – that is resistant to industrial influences – lower income and less influential communities will always become the dumping grounds for contamination.
Wealth and location alone cannot protect us from our national flush into our water supply. Locations downstream or large bodies of water, including the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Green Bay and the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay, will continue to be the collection point for the everything poured down the drain. The inescapable explosion of algae blooms and “Red Tides” along America’s coastline and inland waterways point to the agricultural and industrial run-off problems (including land applied sewage sludge) but there is no national or public investigation of invisible contamination like PFAS. Without addressing the PFAS contamination going into waste water treatement plants, the exiting byproduct of sewage sludge/biosolids and effluence will continue to spread contamination into our food and water supply.
PFAS CONTAMINATION: WHO RUNS THE SHOW?
If the EPA has recognized that their “regulations” do not protect human health and the FDA admits that PFAS has contaminated our food and water supply and even the sludge industry admits that sewage sludge wastes are a vehicle for PFAS and other contamination, why hasn’t this “discovery” created a prompt response?
There is no need to stall the need for instant PFAS testing and action in sewage wastes and waterways – more studies will not change the facts of know contamination that affects the human and environmental “body”. We do not get “better” at being poisoned depending on location or state-by-state. Despite at least two decades of research linking PFAS to serious health problems, unacceptably slow national response to regulating contamination of food and water supply has prompted some states to take a position toward a safer future, including:
- Since the exposure and link between PFAS found in sewage sludge connected to contamination of the milk supply, some states like Maine and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection announced the new testing requirement of sewage sludge wastes in response to growing concerns about contamination from PFAS.
- Toxic chemical discovered in a Wisconsin wastewater treatment plant’s sludge has prompted a halt to application of the material on nearby farms, raising concerns about how WWTP’s across the state may be spreading the chemical across the landscape.
Many states, like Pennsylvania, stumble along with “advisory panels” in a stalling tactic, dismissing the overflow of facts about contamination while trying to coddle industries that are the source of contamination. Why? Because industry cannot meet even the most minimal contamination restrictions. The loudest noise to blur the need for clean food and water comes from the megaphone of, “don’t-put-any-restrictions-on-corporations”, thus we have industry touting “jobs, jobs, jobs” while poisoning your food, water, air and community.
In spite of mounting evidence that chemicals such as PFAS are harming human health, there is no required testing for any of the thousands of chemicals compounds floating around in sewage sludge wastes. Even with EPA’s own discovery of PFAS compounds found in every sample of sewage sludge nationally, the need to update testing requirements of sludge wastes remains unchanged in 30 years. If chemicals like PFAS are declared hazardous, the regulations governing their disposal change, supposedly making the manufacturer accountable. In fact, no federal agency has put a legal limit on PFAS compounds in food — the EPA’s levels are merely guidelines. PFAS contaminated sludge is not a safe “compost” and is not a safe “recycled byproduct” – in a perpetual shell game, it is merely moving toxic waste so industry can play the “prove it” game.
But wait – how can the EPA sit still or create loopholes for PFAS and other contaminants? A tidbit from the agencies own report:
“ EPA Unable to Assess the Impact of Hundreds of Unregulated Pollutants In Land-Applied Biosolids on Human Health (2018) …The EPA’s controls over land application of sewage sludge (biosolids) were incomplete or had weaknesses and may not fully protect human health and the environment. The EPA consistently monitored biosolids for nine regulated pollutants…. Our analysis determined that the 352 pollutants include 61 designated as acutely hazardous, hazardous or priority pollutants in other programs… Pollutants found in biosolids can include pharmaceuticals, steroids and flame retardants.”
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-11/documents/_epaoig_20181115-19-p-0002_glance.pdf
Even further: “ … the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issues an immediate management alert informing the agency that its TRI data pertaining to releases of hazardous substances from Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) are inaccurate. As a result, the public is not receiving complete and timely information about environmental conditions affecting human health.”
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-04/documents/_epaoig_20190408-19-n-0115.pdf
The nationwide concentrations of PFASs in U.S. biosolids have been investigated for years, including the most recent, “National inventory of perfluoroalkyl substances in archived U.S. biosolids from the 2001 EPA National Sewage Sludge Survey. “ Published in 2015, a review of EPA 2001 National Sewage Sludge Survey finds 10 out of 13 PFAS analyzed were consistently detected in all biosolids samples. This PFAS risk assessment provides a solid link to biosolids application on land. Among other things, this study found that PFASs in biosolids showed no significant difference between pre- and post-phase out period. Un-nerving, yes. Surprising, no:
“Although there were efforts in phasing out PFOS and related (PFAS) compounds from production beginning in the year 2002, a comparison of concentrations detected in samples collected in 2001 (this study) and in years 2004–2007 showed no noticeable differences. This suggests that the U.S. may have to consider regulations similar to those instituted in European countries, where PFOS and related compounds were banned from several uses. The significant loading to U.S. soils estimated in the present study further increases concern about groundwater and surface water contamination, as reported in previous investigations by others.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776589/
In the mean time, the EPA has put forth proposals to regulate pharmacueticals being flushed down the drain. Why? Because the pharmacueticals mix at waste water treatment facilities are not distroyed and adding to our national health crisis of antibiotic resistance. If the EPA can recognize pharmaceutical contamination in waste water, surely it can’t be that difficult to recognize that PFAS and other chemicals that we flush down the pipes of every home, business, industry and hospital cannot be something that should be poured on our food, water and communities.
“EPA attempts to stop pharmaceuticals from going down the drain”
“Nationwide, 80% of lakes, rivers and streams now contain low levels of pharmaceuticals. Chronic exposure to low levels of medications in the environment, even expired medications, harms the fertility of fish and other aquatic animals. Most current municipal wastewater treatment technology cannot intercept drugs when they enter the wastewater stream. For these reasons, the EPA has finalized a new rule prohibiting health-care facilities from flushing hazardous waste pharmaceuticals down the drain. EPA’s rule, 40 CFR Part 266, Subpart P, entitled, “Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals and Amendment to the P075 Listing for Nicotine,” will prevent the flushing of 1,644 to 2,300 tons of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals annually by banning the disposal of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals down the sink or toilet.”
While we wait for the EPA (or any other bureaucratic agency) to fulfill it’s mission, to “protect human health and the environment,” it’s of no great shock that the sludge industry also knows how dangerous PFAS is. Dangerous to communities, to water sources, to food supplies and to their income potential.
No surprise to both the bureaucratic agencies and private companies in charge of disposing of our sewage wastes, i.e waste water treatment industry. Previously called the Federation of Sewage Works Associations (1928), the Federation of Sewage and Industrial Wastes Associations (1950), and the Water Pollution Control Federation (1960), the “new” 1991 name change to the Water Environment Federation (WEF) was intended to reflect an expanded focus of non-point and point sources of pollution. A rose by any name. PFAS contamination is a big deal to the sludge industry specifically because they understand how dangerous their product is and how much marketing they have put into getting a public “buy-in” of the false claims of safety of both the solid sludge/biosolids product and the encouraged reuse of liquid effluence as a potable drinking water supply and an irrigation source. Their own industry presentation recognizes the transfer of PFAS from their solid and liquid product:
WEF: PFAS, Wastewater and Biosolids Management Presentation
August 1, 2018
CUT THE CRAP: WE WANT PFAS AND SLUDGE FREE FOOD, WATER & COMMUNITIES
For several decades, federal regulators have dragged their feet on taking meaningful action to protect the public from the known contamination that sewage sludge wastes – both liquid and solid – deliver to our land and water. PFAS is just the most recent alarm bell to wake us from our ignorance.
The wake-up call is upon us, consider these actions to push for a safer, cleaner and healthier food and water supply:
- Contact your elected officials to demand a halt to land applied sewage sludge without meaningful testing requirements of the minimal “elements of concern”, the hazardous chemicals identified in the EPA studies, i.e. halt product use.
- Contact your elected officials to demand halting of sewage sludge effluence used for irrigation without “cleaning” chemicals such as PFAS from the watering source.
- Contact your elected officials to demand that federal agencies like EPA and FDA create regulations for contamination accountability, i.e. do their job!
- Contact your elected officials to demand labeling on all products that use sewage sludge and effluence.
- Contact food companies and request them to certify and label any “sludge-free” products.
- Contact farm and environmental organizations and request a policy that supports sludge-free food, water and landscapes and have them engage their membership.
- Contact the EPA to demand that PFAS chemicals be added to the “Toxic Release Inventory”, forcing disclosure of who and where contaminants released into our air and water are from, requiring polluters to notify – and be accountable for – community contamination.
- Contact EPA and FDA to stop approving PFAS chemicals, and their new Gen X chemicals.
- Contact elected officials and EPA to add PFAS to Superfund Clean-up Laws, creating a classification of hazardous substances to force clean-up.
PFAS Flame Retardant Article Links
Health, Food & Water Impacts
EPA Unable to Assess the Impact of Hundreds of Unregulated Pollutants In Land-Applied Biosolids on Human Health (2018)
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-11/documents/_epaoig_20181115-19-p-0002_glance.pdf :
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-11/documents/_epaoig_20181115-19-p-0002.pdf
The EPA identified 352 pollutants in biosolids but cannot yet consider these pollutants for further regulation due to either a lack of data or risk assessment. Pollutants found in biosolids can include pharmaceuticals, steroids and flame retardants.
EPA : Certain Toxic Release Inventory Data Disclosed to the Public (2019)
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-04/documents/_epaoig_20190408-19-n-0115.pdf
“ … the U.S. EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issues an immediate management alert … pertaining to releases of hazardous substances from Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) are inaccurate. As a result, the public is not receiving complete and timely information about environmental conditions affecting human health.”
National inventory of perfluoroalkyl substances in archived U.S. biosolids from the 2001 EPA National Sewage Sludge Survey
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776589/
2015 review of EPA 2001 National Sewage Sludge Survey finds 10 out of 13 PFAS analyzed were consistently detected in all biosolids samples. This PFAS risk assessment provides a solid link to biosolids application on land.
Statement on FDA’s scientific work to understand per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food, and findings from recent FDA surveys
Information Complied: United Sludge Free Alliance/usludgefree.org/610-823-8258
PFAS Flame Retardant Article Links: Health, Food & Water Impacts
FDA Tests Confirm Suspicions about PFAS Chemicals in Food
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2019/06/fda-tests-confirm-suspicions-about-pfas-chemicals-food
FDA found toxic per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in food, including meat, seafood and dairy products; sweet potatoes; pineapples; leafy greens, and chocolate cake with icing.
WEF: PFAS, Wastewater and Biosolids Management Presentation (2018)
The Water Environment Federation, the waste water treatment industry knows the dangers of PFAS to human health, the environment and their bottom line.
PFAS Chemicals Are Emerging Water Contamination Crisis, But Ag Incidents Still Isolated
Art Schaap, NM, and Fred Stone, ME, have been dumping their milk for months, and their cows also might never become beef from PFAS contamination in water and fodder.
Farmers Losing Everything After “Forever Chemicals” Turned Up In Their Food
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhisubbaraman/pfas-food-farms-milk-produce
“Forever chemicals” linked to cancer are turning up in farm produce across the country, leading farms to lay off workers, incinerate harvests, kill cows, and dump thousands of gallons of dairy milk.
Wisconsin case shows how sewage plants spread toxins across landscape
As Wisconsin discovers more PFAS contamination will the role of wastewater treatment plants in spreading the indestructible, toxic compounds across the landscape be investigated?
Information Complied: United Sludge Free Alliance/usludgefree.org/610-823-8258
PFAS Flame Retardant Article Links: Health, Food & Water Impacts
(Maine) DEP Announces Testing of All Sludge Materials Before Land Application
http://www.publicnow.com/view/C398FE82C08344F4EA611893758E361AA2EE3A30?2019-03-22-21:00:14+00:00-xxx156 https://www.pressherald.com/2019/03/22/maine-dep-to-require-testing-of-sludge-for-forever-chemicals/
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that it will require the testing of all sludge material licensed for land application in the state for PFAS
PFAS in Plants – 2017 Study Findings Australia Army Aviation Centre Oakey Stage 2C Environmental Investigation
http://www.defence.gov.au/Environment/PFAS/Docs/Oakey/FactSheets/20171206AACOPlantStudy.pdf
Minimize PFAS exposure by limiting consumption of home grown vegetables irrigated with PFAS-impacted water or grown in soil irrigated with PFAS-impacted water.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es500016s
Crop uptake of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) from biosolids-amended soil has been identified as a potential pathway for PFAA entry into the terrestrial food chain.
Uptake of Perfluoroalkyl Acids into Edible Crops via Land Applied Biosolids: Field and Greenhouse Studies (2013)
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es403094q
This study confirms that the bioaccumulation of PFAA’s from biosolids-amended soils depends strongly on PFAA concentrations, soil properties, the type of crop and analyte.
Information Complied: United Sludge Free Alliance/usludgefree.org/610-823-8258
PFAS Flame Retardant Article Links
Health, Food & Water Impacts
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in water, soil and plants in wetlands and agricultural areas in Kampala, Uganda (2018)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29539594
Occurrence and concentrations of 26 PFASs were evaluated in wastewater, surface water, soil and crop plants, demonstrated entry into the terrestrial food chain.
Behavior of Decabromodiphenyl Ether (BDE-209) in the Soil-Plant System: Uptake, Translocation, and Metabolism in Plants and Dissipation in Soil
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es901860r
Nineteen lower brominated PBDEs were detected in the soil and plant samples and five hydroxylated congeners were detected in the plant samples, indicating debromination and hydroxylation of BDE-209 in the soil−plant system.
Prenatal exposure to PBDE, PFAS linked to poorer executive function in children
“These findings suggest that concentrations of maternal serum PBDEs and PFAS during pregnancy may be associated with poorer executive function in school-age children.”
Occurrence of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in garden produce at homes with a history of PFAS-contaminated drinking water
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653517321574
PFAS in home garden produce with past/ongoing water contamination; results demonstrate PFAS entry into food chain under real-world conditions.
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