EPA finds record PFOs, PFOA levels in Alabama grazing fields
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- JanforGore
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more from Green:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es803520c
Because of very high levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and other perfluorochemicals found in agricultural soils near Decatur, Ala., scientists with the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are investigating whether perfluorinated chemicals have entered the human food chain and contaminated meat.The source of PFOA and PFOS, both of which occur at low part-per-million levels, is treated municipal sewage sludge, or biosolids, that were applied to some 5000 acres of agricultural land, according to Gail Mitchell, EPA Region 4’s deputy director of water management. EPA is still investigating how the chemicals got into the sludge, adds Cathy Fehrenbacher, chief of EPA’s exposure assessment branch, which is tasked with investigating the fate and transport of PFOA.
Chief among the likely sources are process wastewater from nearby manufacturing plants and chemicals on consumer products that could break down to PFOS or PFOA. These compounds can enter the sewage system from private homes after washing off goods such as stain-repellent fabrics and coated paper products.
In 2007, a local perfluorochemical manufacturer informed EPA that some of its process wastewater contained high levels of perfluorochemicals. Samples of municipal sludge taken in 2005 by environmental consultants with 3M, a company that produced PFOA in a plant near Decatur, and by EPA in 2006 and 2007, also show high but variable levels. The new soil samples were analyzed in October 2008. Decatur water utility records indicate that the sludge has been applied to grasslands used for grazing beef cattle for 12 years, according to Mitchell.
If the chemicals are found to have contaminated meat, the results would mark the first time that perfluorochemicals have been traced from sludge to commercially produced food. In 2006, perfluorochemical contamination of two German rivers was traced to fields treated with sludge (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 7108−7109).
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- groups:
- Green, Earth and Science, Sustainable Agriculture
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asherp
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BUY AND READ THIS BOOK
- 8 months ago
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asherp
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csmonut
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Whatever is in the food source, is now in you.
Go organic...grow your own if you can. That is the only way we can be reasonably sure about what we're eating.
I worked at a wastewater treatment plant that was able to sell the digested and dried sludge to individuals, because it passed all of the EPA requirements.
Of course the treatment process included heating it for as long as 30 days at 95+ degrees, before it could be dried.
I never did thoroughly read the permit, and we did not treat any industrial waste, but I wonder what chemicals were left behind from regular household cleaning supplies? - 8 months ago
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csmonut
