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By Emery Lazar
In early July of this year, the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy Of Sciences issued a report entitled, “Biosolids Applied to Land: Advancing Standards and Practices.” This final Report is the culmination of an 18-month independent evaluation of the technical methods and approaches used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set chemical and pathogen standards for biosolids (a fancy name for sewage sludge), focusing specifically on human health protection.
People who live in rural areas where sewage sludge is being applied to agricultural lands have been complaining for a long time about adverse health effects they associate with exposure to toxic chemicals and pathogens emanating from the sludge. Over the past several years, there has been a proliferation of anecdotal reports linking the land application of sewage sludge to adverse health effects, ranging from mild allergic reactions to severe chronic conditions, and even some fatalities have been alleged to result from exposure to the sludge.
Such reports and allegations have been largely dismissed in the past by the EPA, but the new NRC report concludes that “there is uncertainty about the potential for adverse human health effects from exposure to biosolids.”
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