Fwd: Phosphate Rock Fertiliser: Heavy Metals, Radiation Hazard, Fluoride and Organic Growing.

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Phosphate Rock Fertiliser: Heavy Metals, Radiation Hazard,

Fluoride and Organic Growing.

 

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 23:39:46 +0100

 

 

George Glasser

Press Officer/Water Quality Advisor

National Pure Water Association

 

Re: Phosphate Rock fertiliser: Heavy Metals, Radiation Hazards, Fluoride,

and Organic Growing

 

As many of you might know, before I became involved with the NPWA as a

director, I was an investigative environmental journalist. I specialised in

writing on fluorine pollution and also the phosphate fertiliser industry. I

wrote about the phosphate fertiliser industry for almost 15 years, I

consulted on other articles and did research for several law firms involved

in legal actions against the industry in the US.

(http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/Death.html)

 

For about ten years, I have been concerned about the recommended use of raw

phosphate rock (PR) and colloidal phosphate for fertiliser by organic

growing associations.

 

About five years ago, I contacted many organic growers associations,

internationally, expressing my concerns. I came away with the label of an

" industry apologist. "

 

These are some of the issues I raised:

1. The use of phosphate fertilisers is a major contributor to

environmental pollution.

2. The act of mining PR causes ecological devastation in many regions

of the world.

3. Concern about up-take of fluorides, heavy metals and radionuclides in

produce

grown with phosphate fertilisers.

4. The health and wellbeing of growers who have not been informed about the

dangers in using PR.

 

PR is referred to in geological terms as fluorapatite. Depending on the

region of the world it comes from can contain anywhere from 2.0% to 5.0%

fluoride. At five percent, one kilogram contains enough fluoride to

fluoridate 5,000,000 litres of drinking water.

 

One ounce @ 5.0% fluoride (about the amount used to fertilise one organic

tomato plant as recommended by some organic growers) contains about 1.4

grams of fluoride which is enough to kill a small child.

 

Fluoride is also toxic to many plants (phytotoxic).

 

Aside from fluorine pollution, Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials

(NORM) is the major concern of most government environmental agencies

regulating pollution and phosphorgypsum waste from the manufacture of

phosphoric acid.

 

Depending on where the PR is mined, it can contain from 50 - 200 ppm of

uranium. PR is the major source of 'yellow cake' (uranium oxide) for

nuclear weapons and nuclear power industries.

 

PR is notorious for its radioactive constituents. However, organic growing

organisations seem to be oblivious to these known health hazards,

especially to the people using the product. I find this ignorance of a

'recommended product' very difficult to comprehend, especially when they

purport to be experts on the subject. 'Experts' are supposed to know all

the current scientific information about a product. The information I am

stating has been around for many years.

 

Where there is uranium in natural rock formations, there will also be all

its carcinogenic decay rate products such as radium, radon, radioactive

lead, polonium, thorium, etc., etc.

 

There are also heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium,

vanadium, beryllium, etc., etc.

 

The trailings from phosphoric acid (phosphate fertiliser), phosphorgypsum,

is so radioactive, it is not allowed to be used for wall board or road beds

in the US and Canada - essentially, because it is considered a radiation

hazard. However, organic growers are allowed to dump the raw, unprocessed

product on their fields once every six years. It is equivalent of dumping

raw sewage on plants.

 

None of the contaminants have been processed out of the 'natural' PR mix.

 

Let's look at polonium-210 which is found in PR:

One particle of polonium-210 gives off 5,000 times more alpha radiation

than the same amount of radium. Damage occurs in the body from complete

tissue absorption of the energy of the alpha particle. Polonium-210 can be

carcinogenic to people exposed to more than 0.03 microcuries (6.8

trillionths of a gram) Polonium-210 has a half-life of about 138 days.

(There are also high levels of Radium and Polonium- 210 in granite dust

which is used by organic farmers is some parts of the world as a soil

conditioner).

 

Half of the polonium gives off intense alpha radiation for 138 days until

it turns into regular lead and becomes stable, however, half still remains

emitting alpha radiation for another 138 days, then a quarter of the

original amount and so on and so on.

 

Polonium is found in tobacco grown with phosphate fertilisers, and studies

have suggested that it may be the primary cause of smoking related cancers.

 

Polonium is carried by blood throughout the body. Because polonium travels

throughout the body, it has been linked to more soft-tissue cancers than

bone cancers. Typical sites are the liver, spleen and kidney.

 

Radon is also given off from PR and ground granite. Radon is second only to

smoking as the leading cause of lung cancer in the US.

 

Radon is an important environmental hazard due to its release of alpha

particle radiation. It has a half life of 3.8 days.

 

Radon is also soluble in water.

http://www.physics.umaine.edu/radiation/radon.htm

http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/radon/georadon/3.html

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/pubs/physic.html

 

Radon, in and of itself, is not a carcinogen. It is the decay rate products

of radon that are the problem.

 

If you are using PR or ground granite, you are being exposed to these

radioactive elements, especially radon. It is important to note that these

do not simply dissipate from the product in several days, months or years -

these products will emit radon for many thousands of years.

 

NPWA would strongly recommend organic growers to purchase a radon

detector/s. PR dust can be brought into the home on clothes and shoes.

Also, greenhouse growers should check for radon build-up.

 

If you use PR or ground granite for indoor plants, it would be wise to

purchase a radon detector and re-pot your plants.

 

NPWA believes that the promotion of PR and ground granite by organic

growers organisations such as the UK Soil Association, is not ecologically

sound and endangers the health and well-being of their members and people

who follow their advice.

 

Best,

George Glasser

 

See below for links and more information:

http://www.greenpeace.to/publications_pdf/LCC_2002.pdf

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/neshaps/subpartr/more.htm#how_much_radioactivit

y

http://lqma.ifas.ufl.edu/PUBLICATION-subject.html

http://www.purewatergazette.net/fluorideandphosphate.htm

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/uranium.htm

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=Content & pa=showpage & pid=2

http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/issues/kim-99-23-3/kim-23-3-6-98063.pdf

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~geology/rocks_for_crops/16car.PDF

http://www.webspawner.com/users/radioactivefood/

http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q25.html

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iop/jrp/2000/00000020/00000001/art0030

5

http://www.acsa.net/HealthAlert/RadioFood.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=pubmed & dopt=Ab

stract & list_uids=11379072 & query_hl=2

 

Phosphates - http://www.uic.com.au/nip59.htm

Phosphate rock used for fertiliser is a major NORM due to uranium and

thorium. Australian phosphate rock contains up to 900 Bq/kg and that

imported is about twice this, yielding about 1000 Bq/kg in

phosphogypsum waste stream and up to 3000 Bq/kg in the superphosphate

product. In the USA some 50 million tonnes per year are produced and

state figures (UNSCEAR 1977) average up to 10,000 Bq/kg of total

radioactivity. Processing this sometimes gives rise to measurable doses

of radioactivity to people. Phosphate rocks containing up to 120 ppm U

have been used as a source of uranium.

 

European fertiliser manufacturing gave rise to discharges of

phophogypsum containing significant quantities of Ra-226, Pb-210 and

Po-210 into the North Sea and North Atlantic. This has been overtaken

by offshore oil and gas production in Norwegian and UK waters releasing

some 10 TBq/yr of Ra-226, Ra-228 & Pb-210 - contributing 90% of

alpha-active discharges in those waters (two orders of magnitude more

than the nuclear industry, and with this NORM having higher

radiotoxicity).

Also see: http://www.corpwatch.org/print_article.php? & id=555

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010134hopkins/010134ch3.html

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/radon.htm

http://web.em.doe.gov/idb97/chap7.html

http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/umh/Abstract_View/falck_15_abstract.pdf

http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/007/y5053e/y5053e

0d.htm

http://www.schundler.com/florides.htm

http://www1.fipr.state.fl.us/PhosphatePrimer/0/684AE64864D115FE85256F88007AC

781

http://www.rdsenvironmental.com/hazmat.radon.html

http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/0/80256ad8005545498025678d00

35fa7d?OpenDocument

http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Fertilizer.abstracts.1990-.htm

http://static.highbeam.com/a/australianjournalofsoilresearch/may012001/conta

minationofsoilwithfluoridebylongtermapplicati/

 

 

--

 

 

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition.

 

Sepp Hasslberger

 

 

My page on physics, new energy, economy: http://www.hasslberger.com/

 

Critical perspective on Health: http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/