Sludge Watch ==> Jim Bynum writes about Nursery Products - Rubin

[Maureen Reilly]

Letters to the Editor March 30, 2007
March 30, 2007 - 7:21AM
Desert Dispatch

Rubin's claims on biosolids full of half-truths

Dr. Alan Rubin's February 20, 2007 letter to the editor would be funny if he
wasn't the expert and knows better and likes to tell half-truths sometimes.

Biological solids in sewage are derived from human waste and industrial 
waste
that pass through the sewage treatment process. Biological solids sludge
management is mandated under the RCRA where it is listed as a solid waste. 
In
spite of the laws, a few powerful people created a recycling program before 
most
pollutants could even be identified.

Since EPA has admitted there is absolutely no science or safety behind 
biosolids
recycling. It is strange that Rubin would still be trying to change public
perception just to justify wasting his life and destroying many more.

Wastewater treatment does remove about 95 percent of the chemicals, 
pathogens
(bacteria, viruses) and solids from sewage. These biological solids make up 
1/2
to 4 percent of the sludge leaving the treatment plant. Sixty percent of 
these
biological solids are now directly applied to crops in California. Some
pathogens may be inactivated for a short time. Others are not affected.

EPA has stated in the current biosolids composting fact sheet that potential
environmental impacts may result from both composting operations and use of 
the
compost product. In regards to the survival and presence of primary 
pathogens in
the product, composting is not a sterilization process and a properly 
composted
product maintains an active population of beneficial microorganisms that 
compete
against the pathogenic members. Under some conditions, explosive regrowth of
pathogenic microorganisms is possible.

What Rubin meant to say is that there is not one peer-reviewed study that 
states
the biological solids in sludge are safe for public exposure. EPA's own 
David
Lewis had a peer reviewed published study showing health risks to real 
people.

What Rubin meant to say was that since EPA and the state environmental
departments approved these composting facilities, all agencies have refused 
to
investigate any health complaints from the people in these communities.

Since 1986, food poisoning incidences have explode from 2 million to 76 
million
in 1999. But when we observe the big picture, Papillomavirus now infect 25
million female children and women. No one has any idea how many male 
children
and men are infected even though CDC classified it as a sexually transmitted
disease. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) among our children 
and
adults has exploded and is now epidemic affecting 5-7 percent or more of our
children - and adults. The paramyxoviruses, which cause mumps and measles,
caused 745,000 deaths in 2001. Human obesity is now epidemic. Autism is 
epidemic
with 1 in 150 children effected. Acid refux disease is epidemic. Alzheimer's
disease is epidemic. The we have the flesh eating bugs, Staph bug causes new
(Necrotizing) pneumonia, Aspergillus Necrotizing pneumonia, Group A Strep
Necrotizing pneumonia, E. Coli Necrotizing pneumonia, Yersinis pneumonia.
Without immediate medical attention, life expectancy is from 72 hours to one
week.
EPA acknowledges that exposure to a pollutant (chemical, bacteria, virus, 
etc.)
in biosolids/sludge through the air, water or food-chain, could, on the 
basis of
information available to the Administrator of EPA, cause death, disease,
behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological 
malfunctions
(including malfunction in reproduction), or physical deformations in either
organisms (people) or offspring (children) of the organisms (people).

Jim Bynum
17-year sludge researcher
Smithville, Mo.