[USCC] Compost made with biosolids

[Helane Shields]

Promoting Class A sewage sludge "biosolids" as an unregulated pathogen free fertilizer is a fraud on the public.
 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and waste industry know  there is no sewage pathogen reduction method which deactivates human and/or animal prions.     To the contrary, research confirms that  wastewater treatment reconcentrates the infectious prions in the sewage sludge.

 

Human victims of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) are  shedding infectious prions into public sewers, to end up in both Class B sewage sludge and Class A sludge compost.   Between 2 and 25% of the over 4.5 million cases of Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia victims in the US are actually infected with sporadic CJD.  (Manuelidis, et al, 1989; Boller, et al, 1989, 1995; Harrison, 1991; Teixeira, 1995;  Warren, et al, 2005) creating the reality that many thousands of sCJD victims are shedding infectious prions into public sewers.



Prions have been found in the blood and urine of CJD victims.  (Gabizon, et al, 2001; Reichl, et al 2002) .   Undertakers and medical facilities routinely discharge CJD infected blood and body fluids into public sewers.  (Yale; UC Davis, CDC)

 

  Prions can cross the intestinal barrier by riding piggyback on ferritin, a protein normally absorbed by the intestine.  Because ferritin shares considerable homology across species, these data suggest that PrPSc-associated proteins, in particular ferritin, may facilitate PrPSc uptake in the intestine from distant species, leading to a carrier state in humans.  (Singh, et al 2004)

 

" . . . enteric infection at early as well as later stages of (CJD) disease, and regardless of the route of agent entry, implicates potential environmental spread by fecal matter."  (Radebold, et al 2001)

 

Class B sewage sludge "biosolids" is expected to be pathogenic.    EPA allows land applied sludge "biosolids" to contain  fecal coliform up to 2 million CFU/gram.  But the EPA and waste industry promote the use of  "pathogen-free" Class A sludge "biosolids" compost on playgrounds, ball fields, public parks, and home flower and vegetable gardens 

 

.       "Pathogen free" is clearly not the case when the Class A sludge compost can contain infectious human and animal prions.    Not only are livestock and wildlife at risk from ingesting prion infected soil and sludge,  but humans, and particularly children,  are especially at risk because their hand to mouth behavior results in the ingestion of dirt (Robischon, 1971; LaGoy, 1987; Binder, et al 1986; Gerba, et al 2002 ; CDC,  Callahan,  2004).

 

The EPA guidelines and disclosures on pathogens in Class A sludge "biosolids" compost need to be revisited.   And suggesting this toxic/pathogenic Class A waste be totally unregulated is reckless as research piles up documenting the amplification and long survival of infectious human and animal prions in soil.  (CWD prions in soil amplified 700 times, Pedersen, Aiken, 2007)  





Helane Shields, Alton, NH