Posted on 04/13/2008 1:37:45 PM PDT by metmom
BALTIMORE Scientists using federal grants spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil. Families were assured the sludge was safe and were never told about any harmful ingredients.
Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
So this is what’s wrong with Baltimore’s kids! Sh!t for brains! No more mud pies for youse!
The Reverand Wright needs to expound on this.
There is no such thing as a free lunch(or lawn).
Ewwww.
exactly...though before Wright says it’s a federal conspiracy, I will let everyone know that about 20 years ago, the farmers about a mile away from us in Vermilion, Ohio, used this sludge...and none of the neighbors were asked OR given extra coupons. At least 20 years ago, it stank especially in the summer, (as you can imagine). If it’s the same thing, I hope they did something about the stink cause it weren’t no manure (if you know what I mean!).
Got a better idea - deliver the sludge to the public school cafeterias and let them cook it up and serve it to the kids that already eat all those free lunches anyway. Kill several birds with one stone - dispose of waste, provide “food” that would otherwise cost taxpayers a lot of money, and also get to experiment in under even more controlled conditions...
/sarcasm
Seriously - where is the NAACP, Acorn, and Reverend Al on this???
If this is the material I think it is, in spite of the inflammatory tone of the article, there is no odor involved. It’s similar to the horse and cow manure sold every day at the local lawn and garden store.
The heavy metals and most chemicals are removed at the waste water plant, and this is the stuff that is left. Before it’s used for fertilizer it’s kiln-dried to kill off any remaining live bacteria.
I’m just gonna watch. This oughta be good.
If it’s processed correctly before using then no big deal.
We used Milorganite in the ‘50s and 60s on the lawn and garden.
From Wikipedia:
Milorganite is the brand name of an organic nitrogen fertilizer produced by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. Popularized in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, it consists of processed sludge from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The fertilizer is made up of microbes that have digested nutrients from the sewage stream along with added iron, used to strip phosphorus from the waste water flowing into Lake Michigan.
The name Milorganite is a contraction of the phrase Milwaukee Organic Nitrogen, and was the result of a 1925 naming contest held in National Fertilizer Magazine.
Milorganite(r) 6-2-0 is sold throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Pacific Rim as a homeowner and golf course fertilizer.
You can still buy it.
Video: http://www.milorganite.com
Only the Federal Government could come up with something like this. You’re taxpayer dollars at work experimenting on poor, black families and bribing them with food coupons.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Big *If*.
It’s the government, you know.
I can handle natural fertilizer from certain animals, herbivores, usually..
Human waste??? NO WAY!!!
My understanding is that this is not the first time poor folk, blacks in particular, have been the subject of *experiments*.
It’s just so wrong, and the reason is so flimsy.
Again, about twenty years ago, a local Jr High was having it's playing fields plowed under with. . .sludge from Inner Harbor, Baltimore.
A penetrating stench permeated about a three block area for a very long time.
From the ad:
“In fact, plants need some heavy metals, such as zinc and copper and molybdenum, for normal, healthy growth.”
I didn’t think that those metals were considered heavy metals, so I googled heavy metals up. They aren’t true heavy metals, they’re part of the transition metals which sometimes are classified as heavy.
I think the advertising is somewhat deceitful. On one hand, they’re admitting that it contains heavy metal, and then implies that it’s only the non-toxic kind. Good way to protect yourself from a lawsuit. *Gee, we told them it contained heavy metals and they bought it anyway.*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metals
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