Environment
News Service: June 12, 2002
http://ens-news.com/
Groups
Seek Ban on Arsenic Laden Fertilizer
WASHINGTON,
DC, June 12, 2002 (ENS) - Public health and environmental advocates
are calling on home improvement stores to stop selling a fertilizer
made from mining waste that is contaminated with arsenic.
On Tuesday, 23 groups sent a letter to Home Depot, Lowes and Target
asking them to put the safety of their customers first, and stop
selling a product called Ironite.
Ironite
is a fertilizer produced from the mine tailings of a proposed
Superfund site in Humboldt, Arizona and sold to consumers as a
lawn and garden fertilizer. Testing by government agencies has
found levels of arsenic high enough to classify the fertilizer
as a hazardous waste.
Although
federal law requires that hazardous waste be disposed of in regulated
landfills, a legal loophole called the Bevill Exemption excludes
the mining industry.
"It's
an outrage that the mining industry, through legal loopholes,
can dispose of its toxic mine waste by selling it to unwitting
gardeners," said Bonnie Gestring of the Mineral Policy Center.
"If it's toxic enough for Superfund consideration, it doesn't
belong in anyone's vegetable garden."
A
1997 expose by "The Seattle Times" charged that many
industries dispose of their toxic waste by turning it into fertilizer.
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compiled data on
heavy metal contamination of fertilizer, it found that Ironite
contains - by a wide margin - the highest levels of arsenic of
all fertilizer products surveyed. Ironite also contains high levels
of lead.
Ironite
has the potential to raise the amount of arsenic in lawns and
gardens. A soil scientist in Minnesota found that levels in his
garden rose to 100 parts per million after he applied Ironite
- an amount 100 times background levels in that state.
"Arsenic
and lead have no nutritional value to people or plants. They don't
belong in fertilizer, and they don't belong in our lawns and gardens,"
said Jackie Hunt Christensen, co-director of the Food and health
Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. "Retailers
should make sure the products that they sell don't endanger the
health of their customers."
"State
and federal agencies have known for years about the high levels
of arsenic in this product, and their failure to take action is
mind boggling," said Laurie Valeriano of the Washington Toxics
Coalition. "We need retailers like Home Depot to take matters
into their own hands and get this product off their shelves."
Other
fertilizers besides Ironite also contain toxic waste. Retailers
can obtain information about the levels of heavy metals in fertilizers
at: http://www.wa.gov/agr/pmd/fertilizers/index.htm
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out Agrowinn-Minerals with 6% fast acting
iron as a great way to substitute Ironite.
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