Sludge Watch ==> EPA Sludge Tests on Children in Poor Black Baltimore Neighborhoods

[Maureen Reilly]

EPA Sludge Tests a "Modern-Day Tuskegee Experiment"


Children in Poor Black Neighborhoods Potentially Imperiled by EPA Studies

Revelations that the federal government conducted potentially dangerous 
sludge-related experiments on children in Baltimore is condemned by Project 
21 black leadership network fellow Deneen Borelli, who is demanding more 
answers about the origins of the experiment and wants to know how much other 
reckless policymaking is permeating federal agencies.

The Associated Press reported April 13 that researchers using federal grant 
money selected nine families in poor, black Baltimore neighborhoods to test 
if sludge could reduce child health risks from lead. Sludge derived from 
human and industrial waste was tilled into the families' yards and grass was 
planted over it.

The AP said families were told that lead found in the soil in their yards 
posed a health risk and that the sludge was safe. The study, the findings of 
were published in 2005, did find that sludge bonded with the harmful metals 
lead, cadmium and zinc in the soil. However, concerns about the health risk 
of the sludge appear to have been overlooked, and no follow-up medical 
examinations of the families were reported.

The AP says, "epidemiological studies have never been done to show whether 
spreading sludge on land is safe."

A similar experiment was done in a poor, primarily black neighborhood in 
East St. Louis, IL.

"This is no less than a modern-day Tuskegee Experiment," said Borelli. "The 
government appears to have clearly failed - in the case of the EPA - in its 
mission 'to protect human health and safeguard the environment.' In fact, it 
is failure on both counts. For federal bureaucrats at EPA and HUD to 
knowingly allow this experiment to take place and jeopardize the health of 
children and adults is outrageous."

In 1993, the EPA began allowing Class B sludge containing human feces, 
medical waste and assorted chemicals to be used on farmland, in national 
forests and for mine reclamation efforts. EPA managers have been hostile to 
critics who questioned whether the sludge is safe. The hostility included 
angry calls and letters to public critics and unfounded ethics complaints 
imperiling the careers of critics within the agency. EPA scientists David 
Lewis and William Markus, who spoke out about the unknown potential dangers 
of Class B sludge, were retaliated against by their superiors, but later 
sued the EPA and won a $100,000 settlement.

In March a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to 
compensate Georgia farmer Andy McElmurray because sludge used in his fields 
to grow corn and cotton to feed livestock contained extremely high levels of 
arsenic, toxic heavy metals and PCBs. U.S. District Judge Anthony Alaimo 
wrote that government-endorsed data on the sludge was "unreliable, 
incomplete and, in some cases, fudged." Judge Alaimo further wrote, "senior 
EPA officials took extraordinary steps to quash scientific dissent."

Borelli wants to know if there are other issues championed by the agency in 
which necessary assessment was bypassed to meet desired political goals.

"One can't help but compare the scandal in Baltimore to global warming 
policy promoted by environmental activists and many of their supporters in 
the government bureaucracy," added Project 21's Borelli. "In the case of the 
EPA, the agency's lack of sound analysis regarding climate change will 
undoubtedly lead to dire economic consequences. For instance, the American 
Council For Capital Formation predicts '?the United States would lose 
between 1.2 and 1.8 million jobs in 2020' and that the 'primary cause of job 
losses would be lower industrial output due to higher energy prices, the 
high cost of complying with required emissions cuts, and greater competition 
from overseas manufacturers with lower energy costs.' We can't be allowed to 
run headlong into a crisis without proper scientific evidence. In Baltimore 
and the nation as a whole, it looks as if the government is putting policy 
goals ahead of public welfare."

Between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study on 
the effects of syphilis on black men. In the process, researchers 
intentionally denied full knowledge and treatment for the debilitating 
sexually transmitted disease to the 399 black men studied. Called the 
Tuskegee Experiment because government researchers used the renowned black 
institution's medical facilities, the race-based study led to the deaths of 
128 of the study's subjects while 59 wives and children contracted or were 
born with syphilis.

The AP story was written by John Heilprin and Kevin S. Viney.

Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the 
National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the 
African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David 
Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or project21 at nationalcenter.org, or visit 
Project 21's website at www.project21.org/P21Index.html.


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