SLUDGE SLIPPAGE

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SLUDGE SLIPPAGE

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/03/national/03SLUD.html

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied a petition from

73 labor, environment and farm groups calling for an immediate

moratorium on land-based uses of sewage sludge - a practice that we

exposed in our 1994 book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You. " The

rejection of the petition followed an announcement by the agency in

October, after five years of analysis and study, that it would not

regulate dioxins in land-applied sludge, " reports the Associated

Press. " Dioxins are a class of organic chemicals that EPA studies

show pose a possible cancer risk in humans, but the agency said in

its October statement that the danger was minimal. The latest

announcements by the EPA come a year and a half after a panel of

the National Research Council, in a review the agency had asked

for, criticized what the council described as outdated science in

the agency's assessment of health risks from treated sludge used as

fertilizer. " Just to show it isn't completely irresponsible,

though, the EPA promises to study the problem further and someday

may regulate 15 other toxic chemicals in sludge that currently

aren't on its watch list. Meanwhile the sludge wars continue at the

local level, with communities in Texas and Louisiana fighting

unbearable odors, groundwater contamination, and toxic pathogens

from sludge, while in Ohio, sludge critics are dismissed as " a lot

of kooks. "

SOURCE: Associated Press and New York Times, January 2-3, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1073118824

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