Unsuspecting farmers and consumers who garden and care for lawns are using fertilizers they think are safe. Metals and chemicals in fertilizer are winding up in our food, in our waters, and in our bodies. Are we silently being terrorized by fertilizer?

Fertilizer is the "food" that plants need to produce a healthy and bountiful crop. Most chemical fertilizers are made up of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) in the form of mineral salts.

Experts estimate that without commercial fertilizers, the world would be without one-third of its food supply. Sewer sludge, another type of fertilizer, has also been on the rise.

Sheep who ate cabbage grown on sludge developed lesions on the liver and thyroid glands. Pigs grown on corn treated with sludge had higher levels of cadmium in their tissues.

Industrial companies are able to sell or donate their hazardous waste and label it fertilizer. No matter what form fertilizer comes in, it has become a threat to American life.

The Voyage of Hazardous Materials
The production, handling, storage, transport, disposal and receipt of dangerous wastes are tracked by authorized state agencies. But as soon as the waste becomes a recycled product, like a fertilizer, the tracking requirements end.

Dick Camp, President of Bay Zinc Fertilizer Company in Moxee Washington said, "When it goes into our silo, its hazardous waste. When it comes out of the silo, it's no longer regulated. The exact same material. Don't ask me why."

When toxic materials come out of the storage tower, it is labeled "fertilizer," unsuspecting farmers and consumers enrich their fields and lawns with it. Then the voyage of toxic materials really becomes interesting. When it rains, the ingredients in fertilizers have an aggressive mover to take it to various places and make it a threat to human health.

Crops absorb toxic substances: Some crops are more likely to absorb toxic substances from soils. Fruits and grains can absorb lead, and lettuce, corn and wheat can absorb cadmium from soils.

Fertilizers are used as animal feed: It is common to use waste-derived fertilizers, as animal feed. Animals are often more susceptible to the hazards of the toxic substances found in fertilizers, such as lead, cadmium and dioxin. Cadmium has been linked to brain lesions in cattle, and high doses of boron are a developmental and reproductive toxin in animals. Dioxin is known to cause cancer in humans.

Toxins accumulate in soils: Fertilizer is of great concern as children spend more time on or near the ground and are exposed to substances in the soil through hand-to-mouth behavior. Lead exposure can cause birth defects, cancer, and can damage the central nervous system, especially in children.

Toxins affect the quality of our waters: Storm water runs off from fields and lawns into creeks, ponds, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Many waters are too polluted for fishing or swimming. An Environmental Protection Agency report found metals to be the second largest pollutant in waters and the agricultural industry to be responsible for lake pollution. Some of these toxins from fertilizer have been found in drinking water.

Fertilizer Laws
Fertilizer companies are saving storage fees of hazardous waste materials by unloading them on unsuspecting farmers and consumers. There is no federal law that requires fertilizer companies to reveal their ingredients. Some of the ingredients found in fertilizers are recorded in the United States Environmental Protection Agency as health hazards, yet they are allowed in fertilizers.

Fertilizer labeling laws in most states only require beneficial ingredients to be listed on the label leaving farmers and consumers unaware of which fertilizers contain toxic substances. Lead, cadmium, arsenic, and the more than two dozen other toxic metals and chemicals often found in fertilizers are not listed on the labels of the nation's fertilizer products and they don't have to be.

Any material that has "fertilizer qualities" can be labeled and used as fertilizer. In fiscal year 2004, 57.8 million total tons of fertilizer was used in the United States.

Fertilizer is only regulated on a state by state basis. The Georgia Fertilizer Act requires distributors of fertilizer in Georgia to be licensed and all specialty fertilizers be registered. This Act also regulates labeling, product sampling, and tonnage reporting.

It's not just in Georgia, but it is across the nation. Industries are disposing of wastes by any means necessary. They are giving it free to fertilizer manufacturers or farmers, or even paying them to take it.

Toxic Loopholes
Three loopholes exist in the law that allows toxic waste in fertilizer. Hazardous waste can travel down either passageway and become legal. Each passageway has different testing requirements and a different level of reporting.

Steel companies can send toxic ash, also called "K061 Waste" to companies that make zinc fertilizers. They don't have to test it and don't have to record where it is going.

The second method allows for companies to manipulate a loophole designed for recycling hazardous wastes. Any company sending waste to a fertilizer company for recycling only has to make sure the material would pass the Environmental Protection Agency's Land Disposal Rule.

If the waste is considered safe enough to store in the landfill, then it is considered safe enough to be recycled into fertilizer. Industries providing the toxic waste do not have to test their hazardous materials beyond landfill standards nor do they have to document what happens to it.

The third loophole is more highly regulated than the other two. This loophole allows companies to transfer wastes directly to farms if farms can treat the waste on their land and render the material harmless.

Between 1990 and 1995, nineteen million pounds of waste were received by Georgia facilities that appeared to be farms. Georgia fertilizer companies also received some of that waste. Over 200,000 pounds of that waste was toxic metals.

Got Health Problems?
Industrial companies are recycling their hazardous waste material and calling it fertilizer. These waste materials a.k.a. "fertilizers" are overloaded with chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive materials. It is entering into the food supply chain and increasing impacts on human health. Researchers have sampled hundreds of fertilizers and have found toxic metals harmful to humans in the ingredients.

Mercury, which is linked to developmental effects have been found in fertilizer. Dioxin, and arsenic, known to cause cancer in humans has been found in fertilizer.

Metals known to cause birth defects and reproductive problems have been found in fertilizer. The United States Environmental Protection Agency knows these products are harmful to humans, and is fully aware that these toxins are in fertilizer, but has not created a law to protect citizens who are uninformed of these chemicals in the nation's fertilizers. They will not ban the products or even mandate a federal label listing that identifies the toxic ingredients.

The steel industry provided 30% of this waste. Used for its high levels of zinc, which is an essential nutrient for plant growth, steel industry wastes can include lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel and dioxin, among other toxic substances.

Hazardous wastes continue to burden regulatory agencies and the industries that generate them. Regulators are under increasing pressure to find ways to treat, handle, and dispose of wastes that will not assault the American public.