Farmers who use sewage sludge as fertilizer and their neighbors face higher risks of cancer and other diseases, according to a new federal analysis that pins the blame on toxic forever chemicals.
The findings are particularly relevant for northeast Illinois, where more than 777,000 tons of sludge from Chicago and Cook County have been spread on farmland during the past eight years — in many cases near residential areas.
Only the Greater Los Angeles area distributed more sludge to farmers during the same period.
Officials at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago have known their sludge fertilizer is contaminated with forever chemicals since at least 2013, the Chicago Tribune reported in a 2022 investigation.
Yet the chemicals — also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS — are not regulated in sludge fertilizer by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA continues to promote the spread of fetid muck on farmland without limiting the amount of PFAS it contains.
That could change as a result of the agency’s new analysis — in EPA-speak a draft risk assessment.
Forever chemicals have been widely used for decades in firefighting foam and to make products such as nonstick cookware, stain-repellent carpets, waterproof jackets and fast-food wrappers that repel oil and grease.
When human excrement and industrial waste is flushed into sewers, conventional treatment not only fails to screen out PFAS, it concentrates the chemicals in sludge.
Researchers and public health advocates are increasingly concerned because some PFAS build up in human blood, take years to leave the body and don’t break down in the environment. Others transform over time into more hazardous compounds, increasing the risk that grains, beans, hay and produce grown in sludge-amended soil could be tainted for years to come.
Long-term exposure to tiny concentrations of certain PFAS can trigger testicular and kidney cancer, birth defects, liver damage, impaired fertility, immune system disorders, high cholesterol and obesity, studies have found. Links to breast cancer and other diseases are suspected.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
