Are we unknowingly using toxic sludge?

I have just read a long and interesting article on the dangers of toxic sludge. Near the end are some recommendations of things we can do, and this is an excerpt from that section:

"Don’t let sludge be spread on any more land. This would include the so-called “safer” Class A sludge that Dr. Lewis warned us about that is sold in nurseries and garden centers for home garden use.

Class A sewage sludge that is sold in bags at garden centers is hard to identify. We found only one company that listed sewage sludge as part of its contents on the bag. It contained a warning label about health hazards on the bag, as well. The other companies did not identify sludge in its contents, yet it was common knowledge among the guys working in that department that sludge was included in nearly every fertilizer they sold. Some bags that are clearly marked straight “organic” without any qualifiers are safe. However, if the bag says something like “contains ORGANICS” (the word “Organic” is always huge and prominent) or “contains natural products” or something like this, it most likely has Class A sewage sludge. So, beware."

Here's the entire article: http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/AB1473/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=313&DID=8

By the way, I have been interested in this subject since recently reading Toxic Sludge is Good for You which exposes how much big money (and its PR) controls what information reaches the public. What I didn't know is that I probably have added toxic sludge to my garden via bags of organic additives from my local garden center. There outta be a Law!

this is some scary stuff!!! I will watch for what is in our local nurseries this spring and talk to the managers about it if I can.

Thank you very much for posting this. I saved the article and am going to print it and mail it to my inlaws. They are caretakers of a 20,000 acre cattle ranch and the owner has the sludge trucks coming in by the dozen a week these are large semis full of sludge. He gets paid and doesn't live there though so he probably doesn't care. This is something I would like my inlaws to see however.

Katrina

Just one of the reasons I have cows. . .

and sheep ....

Isn't that what Milorganite is? Sewage sludge from Milwaukee?

http://www.milorganite.org/companyinfo/companyhistory.asp

Inda, yes that's what Milorganite is, and it's clearly marked as not safe for applying to vegetable gardens or around any plant that will be consumed by humans.

Most organic fertilizers are mineral-based (bone meal, blood meal, etc.), and those tend to be pretty pure. I buy bagged mushroom compost, and I have no reason to believe it isn't exactly what is stated on the label.

If the quote above is referring to garden center employees, I don't necessarily trust the "guys working in that department" to know much about anything they sell, and I'd take their claims with a heavy grain of salt.

Having said that, it does point to a good reason for each of us to compost our own yard and kitchen waste - you know EXACTLY what's in it.

Driving home from work one morning we drove through the horrible "stench", and I could see trucks in the back of a hay field. I knew exactly what they were doing. The smell will knock you over. It didn't seem like the smell lasted very long, and I thought they must have burried the sludge. I haven't noticed them spreading anymore out in that area since then.... Maybe the farm owners had second thoughts.

For years I've been buying "compost" by the yard at a local rock & stone center. I never knew the stuff was made from sludge ... it never even crossed my mind. But it is. You buy it as you would a yard of loam or sand. After a few years I found out it was made from sludge. I haven't been all that concerened since I no longer grow vegetables. This has opened my eyes. I wonder what it has done to the soil?

I really must learn to garden with gloves, like rubber gloves!

Hahah Aimee what about the rubber dish washing gloves those might work well :)

Katrina

Allergic to latex!

Ooops those won't work then.... Hmmmm do they sell rubber gardening gloves? The only problem I find with gloves is that most of the time they are too big !

Katrina

Gloves always have seams, and those seams are actually painful to my fingers. The thin ones I use for cleaning won't work in the garden soil, and the thick ones that would are either too big, too seamy or made of material to which I react. I have often thought how disgusting it is to dig around in soil where animals relieve themselves, especially when I encounter the evidence as I plant or weed.
But I have never thought of the compost and other stuff I use to amend the soil as being sludge. Maybe I will just have to learn to live with the pain of seams?

I wonder if the sludge present in the amendments is actually strong enough to pose a threat. It might not be harmful in moderation (hoping I don't get jumped for this response!) Some things must be encountered in a large quantity to be harmful.


Katrina

What about lining a pair of the heavy-duty latex gloves with the non-latex gloves? Would that help? What a bummer!

They sell a sludge product around here called ComTil. It's HUGE around here, very popular, and mixed in with a lot of hardwood mulches. We have mulch containing it, but we're not growing any food crops. We bought 40 bags last year because my BIL worked for a mulch company and we got 3cu ft bags of hardwood mulch for $1.50 each.

We're going to use them until they run out and then look for alternatives. We have way too much invested in it and left to use to pitch it, that's for sure.

In Korea, human waste has been used on food crops for generations, according to what I have read. When I first heard of that, I was repulsed, but it hasn't seemed to harm them. Or has it? Does anyone know anything about this?

ComTil is supposedly treated and safe for use. That's the line they gave everyone at the Home & Garden Show where they exhibited and had samples to take home. That was the pure ComTil, not mixed in other stuff. Boy, that stuff stinks! But then again, so do a lot of "natural" fertilizers (fish emulsion!!).

Here's a little data from Ohio on ComTil and similar products being tested, along with soil tests: http://www.glbma.org/page/activ/01fsr/fsrplots.htm#PlotMap

This message was edited Tuesday, Jan 14th 1:10 PM