Biosolids Are Used As Fertilizers!

...Just some food for thought.  

Fertilizer: any substance, natural or synthetic, added to soil to increase its capacity to support plant growth.

- This includes a variety of nitrates and minerals, and manure. Usually animal manure. This type of fertilizer is ideal because it contains recycled nutrients from the plants the animals eat.

Biosolids: human waste, treated to be used as fertilizer.

- That is, sewer sludge that has been filtered, and can be used to make plants grow faster. In some countries, it is used as a type of fertilizer, and is considered very beneficial.

- Same thing as animal manure, right? No, I didn’t think so either.

  

But before you spit out any of your vegetables, you should know why biosolids are used as fertilizers in the first place. Here, out in the big cities of the West, we’re very, well, Westernized. We’re not used to getting our hands dirty. Sewage is exactly that. Not only does the thought of it in our foods make most of us want to gag, there are also many logical reasons why we wouldn’t want it near our food. Pharmaceuticals and other drugs, hormones, flame-retardants, metals, and other potentially harmful things have been found in biosolids. Humans carry diseases; they ingest unhealthy foods everyday; they breathe pollution.

However, keep in mind that this is taken into consideration. The use of biosolids is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.). Special care is taken during the intensive treatment process, in order to ensure that only healthy nutrients are left in the biosolids before they are put into soil. Plants grown with biosolids are carefully monitored, and the treatment plants are kept a safe distance from residential areas. Though there have been concerns from those who live near these farms, there have yet to be any significant health risks linked to the use of biosolids.

Biosolids are a valuable source of nutrients for growing crops, and improving pasture. They contain nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter, as well as minerals like copper, iron and zinc, which would otherwise have to be bought separately and added to soil. Biosolids enhance soil structure, making it more permeable and allowing it to hold in moisture longer. They improve soil fertility for much cheaper than commercial fertilizers. This cuts costs for both the farmers and the consumers.

One of the greatest benefits of using biosolids as fertilizer is that it is good for the environment. Some would go so far as to say it completes the natural cycle, if our waste was to be recycled to grow our food. Rather than sewage ending up in landfills, it is better that its valuable nutrients are put to good use. If we can find a way to reduce pollution, we must do it.

The potential stakeholders in this situation are the consumers. Our health is in the hands of farmers when it comes to the foods we buy and eat. While biosolids are a valuable resource, and have the potential to improve crops, cut costs, and help the environment in the long run, caution must be taken. Farmers, and all who play a role in the production of our foods, have the responsibility of ensuring that these fertilizers are properly treated, and that biosolid plants do not affect the health of the public.

And I have my sources... 

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/nm/nasm/sewbiobroch.htm#1

http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/subject/biosolids/STDPROD_079189.html

http://www.pollutionissues.com/A-Bo/Biosolids.html

http://www.halifax.ca/wastewatertreatment/FAQBiosolids.html

http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAtU9IxqyS0UoCStN18-9QxYIlgKbxJJphUGObCJfCz1-bW-xeiO76ybC1y7S2R-QNcGMbTJ6FvVUufcRjLwNb-Q0R6e7yiFjqlzn_ABAkrVDc_ehL6d0rdAml6zMLL5kbqP8LY_JIZYi/s1600/biosolids-treatment-process_2.jpg

Also, check out Claudia and Kendra's blogs:

Biosolids as Agricultural Fertilizer?!?!?!

Hu-manure?!

Way To Go, Bigelow!

Canadians have made many great contributions to modern medicine, and our understanding of the human body. The discovery of Insulin is a well-known Canadian contribution. You may have also heard of Pablum, a cereal for infants containing the vitamins needed healthy development. What about the discovery of the T-cell receptor, a contribution to drug development? There’s also the Cobalt Bomb, first used in Canada in 1951, the first cancer treatment with high enough radiation to cure deep tumors. The list goes on and on…

Canadians have also made significant efforts in cardiovascular research. In particular, Canadian surgeon and hypothermia researcher Dr. Wilfred Bigelow, whose research allowed the first open-heart surgery on a human.

Though it is believed that heart surgery began in the 19^th century, operating inside the heart is much newer. Before the 1950s, when a patient had a heart defect, doctors were limited to external repairs, because there was no way to safely stop blood flow.

Through Dr. Bigelow’s hypothermic research in the early 1940s, some involving the study of hibernating animals, he discovered that lowering the temperature in the limbs also reduced the amount of oxygen required for that part of the body. He applied this knowledge to the internal organs of the body, and concluded that hypothermia would allow doctors to operate on the heart without killing other organs or destroying the heart itself. In 1952, the first open-heart surgery was performed on a 5-year-old girl who had a hole in her heart.

Interrupting circulation meant disrupting oxygen flow to vital organs, like the brain, causing fatal damage. The lower temperature reduced the oxygen requirement, but this was not effective for very long. When the heart-lung pump was invented, this became part of the procedure, an addition to the cold chemicals that are injected into the coronary arteries.

 

Today, though this is still a highly effective method of open-heart surgery, surgeons have not stopped improving their methods. It is now possible to perform an operation on a beating heart, though one that has been stabilized so that it is almost still, which has in some cases proved safer. There is even robot-assisted surgery, introduced in 1999; less invasive, a surgeon operates robotic arms which enter small holes cut in the chest, so that the chest is not wide open and bones remain untouched. The heart can also pump naturally, reducing recovery time and risk.

 

Dr. Bigelow, along with Dr. John Callaghan, is also credited with the idea of the pacemaker. Though the first pacemaker was not used until much later, Bigelow discovered in 1949, that by prodding a stopped heart with a probe, he could make it restart. He and Bigelow began to work with the idea that en electric shock to the heart could achieve the same affect. Thus, the pacemaker eventually came about.

It’s amazing how far we’ve come in medical technology, and amazing what researchers have and continue to achieve. It takes many minds to devise and improve something as great as heart surgery, yet there is no doubt that even a single idea can lead us into the future.

http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2009/08/eight-great-canadian-medical-breakthroughs/

http://www.thinkfinity.org/2010-09-02_first-successful-open-heart-surgery

http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/residents/pioneerinterviews/article-2.html

http://www.mayoclinic.org/tradition-heritage/first-open-heart-surgery.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_surgery#History

http://www.cdnmedhall.org/dr-wilfred-gordon-bigelow

Like I said, there's a much longer list. Here's two more of our life-saving accomplishments:


It's true...we can't live without technology.


First In Canada to Use Endoscopic Ultrasound Technology