To think that human excrement shoudl not be used by farmers to grow vegetables....???

[DabblesInGettingOld]

where your poo goes

[DabblesInGettingOld]

no - one cares????

[unaccomplishedfattylegalmummy]

I didn't read the article but whats the difference in using human poo and horse poo?? I don't get the problem.

[ethanchristopher]

well at least its natural

i would rather that than artificial harmful substances

tbh theyre not gonna serve it covered in poo
the food does get washed

[GentleOtter]

Oh I care Dabbles. SEPA don't give a toss however.
Human poo contains heavy metals which remain in the soil add to this pathogens which live for varying amounts of time and you have a potential problem.
As I said on another thread you are forbidden to walk on fields sprayed with it for six weeks yet no signs are ever put up.

[DabblesInGettingOld]

you have to read article... an extract...

....But criticism of sludge has come from quarters that no one could call over-emotive. Robert Swank, a senior Environmental Protection Agency official, testified to the US Senate in 2000 that US regulations "don't pass scientific muster". In 2002, a senior EPA microbiologist called Dr David Lewis led a University of Georgia study that analysed 53 incidents where health issues had been reported near sludge sites, and found a puzzlingly high incidence of staph infections. Lewis thought chemical irritants in sludge may be causing lesions that allowed staph easy access to the bloodstream. He told reporters: "In my opinion, the land-spreading of sludge is a serious problem. We have mixed together pathogens with a wide variety of chemicals that are known to enhance the infection process. It makes people more susceptible to infections." Taking excrement from hundreds of thousands of people, mixing it and spreading it on land is simply "not a good idea". Not long afterwards, he was fired....

[stripeymama]

Well, something has to happen to it!

I agree it sounds quite grim but thats due in part to poor filtering/treatment, and also to the amount of other stuff we are flushing down the toilet.

Proper composting toilets could help with this.

[GentleOtter]

I might add that it is used to 'fertilize' fields which is then grazed by cattle and sheep so it is not just a contaminant for vegetables.

[choccypig]

I grew up on a farm with no sanitation. Toilet contents were dug into the VEGETABLE PATCH. Did me no harm, apart from feeling very embarassed about it when friends came round.

[choccypig]

But seriously, I'd guess there is more risk from all the tiolet cleaning stuff, than from the actual poo.

[choccypig]

I once dropped a bracelet made from a brass chain into the "toilet" and was too squeamish to fish it out. We dug it up in the garden the following year, and I happily started wearing it again.

[misi]

human waste was used all the time centuries ago. londons human waste was barged out to essex and spread all around. some of the best tomatoes around were grown on the sludge heaps at beckton sewage works from self seeded plants
the only trouble with human waste today is the level of artificial hormones in it. fertiliy rates are plummetting in the western world especially amongst men because of the amount of artificial oestrogen in the environment from contracetive pills and the like. artificial hormones take many years to break down in the environment whereas natural hormones take a matter of days (maybe a week or so in the case of one or two hormones). water is processed so the level of artificail hormones is much less than when the water entered the system, but in poo, it may be settled out, heat treated and composted but the hormones survive and therefore even more hormones get into our diet through food fertilised by human waste. most hormones have been banned in the production of animals nowadays, this could in theory shift the hormone excess to plant production instead. I'll carry on growing my own I think

[juneybean]

It makes the the bloody village I live in stink for three days when they muck spread here.

[GentleOtter]

Well for what it is worth the horrible neighbouring farmer who uses all the 'sludge' on his fields has lost a record amount of animals since he started putting them straight on to the sprayed fields. They were dying really suddenly.
Some of them were eating the stuff from the huge heaps.

[lilymolly]

they spread it around here too (durham) and it stinks.

It should be totally safe as it is treated, but their are various theories which think that it may cause miscarriage in sheep maybe due to sanitary waste and toxoplasmosis