metals in farming practices

[Guest guest]

dear list,

I find the following article quite disturbing. The first

part (about prions and drugs) is bad. At the end is the

part about metals, also bad.

I got this article from another list (I don't read the

Idaho Observer).

I'm passing this on for any who want the info. Sorry to bear

such really seriously bad news, and don't feel very

empowered on the subject

Moria

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From the December 2000 Idaho Observer:

http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20001206.htm

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Is the road to medical Armageddon being paved with

human feces?

by The Idaho Observer

SEATTLE -- KING 5 TV here reported Nov. 20, 2000, that

thousands of tons of sewage sludge (processed human

waste) that has been renamed " biosolids " are being

spread on farms across the state and other states

throughout the country.

The practice is cause for concern in three specific

areas with regard to contamination of the food chain.

Last month in The IO we reported that traces of

unmetabolized synthetic pharmaceutical drugs such as

Prozac, antibiotics and hormones are turning up in the

groundwater of Europe and North America. Levels of

these substances are being detected because as much as

95 percent of synthetic drugs ingested are not

metabolized and leave the body in their original forms

through the urine and the feces. If prescription drugs

are being detected in the water after it has been

treated, we can infer that they will also be present

in the " biosolids " being spread all over the crops of

this nation.

The presence of metals in " biosolids " is also a

concern. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and

Washington's Department of Ecology claim the metal

content of " biosolids " processed at the state-of-the-

art West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle is minimal.

West Point Manager Dick Finger explains that raw

sewage is digested, heated and spun at his facility

until it's just right for shipment to the fields. "

We make sure the products that we produce are of a

very high quality, " said Finger.

Government agencies also claim that the potential for

the spread of transmissible disease is low because the

soil upon which it is deposited will kill any

remaining pathogens. " Am I concerned about significant

impacts to human health and the environment? No, not

based on the information I've seen so far, " says state

Biosolids Coordinator Dorsey.

It is well known that fully decomposed material, even

if it is human waste, is beneficial to the soil as

organic matter and provides plants with the nutrients

needed to grow healthy and yield abundantly. Treated

sewage is not fully decomposed. For government

agencies to claim that " biosolids " are safe is to

ignore a tremendously important body of published

science.

State of Washington " biosolids " policy is likely

contributing to the most ominous food supply disaster

looming on the human horizon: Prions. Prions are

protein crystals that grow in grain fungi. Prions are

nearly indestructible. We are being exposed to prions

by eating animals such as cows that eat prion-

contaminated grains. We are also being exposed to

prions when we eat prion-contaminated grains.

Prions are crystals; crystals are attracted to

electromagnetic energy; our brains produce

electromagnetic energy; prions attracted to our brains

cause lesions called encephalopathies;

encephalopathies cause swelling of the brain; swelling

of the brain causes dementia. Having prions in your

brain also makes a person more open to suggestions

that may be encoded through the transmission of TV and

radio waves. Prion disease, which was called " kuru "

when it was discovered in the in New Guinea in the

early 1960s, is called " mad cow disease " in cattle,

" whirling disease " in fish, " scrapie " in pigs and

sheep, " wasting disease " in wild game and

Creutzfeldt- disease in people (there is data to

show that as many as 200,000 Americans who have been

misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's disease may actually be

suffering the ravages of prion disease).

If our food supply is already contaminated with

prions, which there is overwhelming evidence to

suggest that it is, then " fertilizing " crops with

human waste is going to exacerbate the situation.

" Every organism has a food supply that it depends upon

for life. If the food supply is changed or

contaminated, the organism must either adapt or become

extinct, " Clyde Reynolds, ND, explained.

Scientists at Cornell University have serious concerns

about the use of " biosolids " as fertilizer. A team

from Cornell tore apart the EPA's assumptions about

the safety of the sludge.

Cornell found EPA's Cancer Risk Assessment is " not

protective, " and its enforcement and oversight is

" inadequate. " It also found that pathogens may survive

in soil, especially in cool, wet conditions.

The team from Cornell believes that there is no way to

protect the public from leaching and flooding that may

spread live pathogens.

Despite these justifiable concerns, Washington state

allows sludge to be dumped in every county. There are

no state-mandated testing procedures for pathogens

once " biosolids " are dumped.

KING 5 test results

" Bob Thode spreads 22,000 wet tons of sludge over 600

acres at his Fire Mountain Farms in County. For

that, he is paid more than $400,000 a year, " reported

KING 5 News.

Thode's neighbors are not impressed with his farming

practices and equate living downstream from him to

living downstream from a flushing toilet.

KING 5 Investigators decided to compare a sample of

the sediment in one of Thode's ditches taken in 1994

(before " biosolids " ) to one taken in the exact same

place after six years of being licensed by the state

to spread the sludge on his crops above the ditch.

Levels of all metals have increased drastically.

KING 5 Investigators reportedly gave test results to

Dorsey, who thought that pure " biosolids " -- not ditch

sediment -- was what KING 5 tested. Levels of

pharmaceutical drugs were not tested, nor were the

presence of prions tested.

" While our test is not conclusive, it has raised

serious questions, and the state says more

comprehensive testing may be needed, " KING 5

concluded.

Plants absorb metals and other soil components so long

as the particles are small enough. Therefore we have

no idea how much metal may be ingested upon

consumption of food grown in " biosolid " enriched soil.

" The government does not require food grown in sludge

to be labeled, " KING 5 concluded.

Metal Parts Per Million in 1994 v 2000:

Element 1994 PPM 2000 PPM

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Lithium 4.33 16.00

Magnesium 1750.00 7000.00

Aluminum 14400.00 33000.00

Phosphorous 351.00 930.00

Titanium 6.21 1200.00

Chromium 24.20 57.00

Barium 97.60 150.00

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The Idaho Observer

P.O. Box 457

Spirit Lake, Idaho 83869

Phone: 208-255-2307

Email: observer@...

Web: http://proliberty.com/observer/

..

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