NEBRA : North East Biosolids

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02/01/11

More Research and Policy on Microconstituents

This topic has been a regular in NEBRAMail for several years (scroll down this page to see NEBRA coverage). Here are some recent (January 2011) findings....

Category: Trace Organics / Microconstituents

Posted by: nebra

Recently, in lab experiments, researchers at the University of Montreal and Environment Canada detected antidepressants in St. Lawrence River fish exposed to wastewater treatment effluent, according to the Montreal Gazette.

A recent piece of research in ES & T asked the question "Are Oral Contraceptives a Significant Contributor to the Estrogenicity of Drinking Water?" The paper, which can be downloaded free, "includes discussion of the various agricultural, industrial, and municipal sources and outlines the contributions of estrogenic chemicals to the estrogenicity of waterways and estimates that the risk of exposure to synthetic estrogens in drinking water on human health is negligible." WERF discusses this paper in relation to its own current research here.

Meanwhile, the Rodale Institute has stated stronger concern about biosolids because of microconstituents, triclosan in particular; see here.

And popular online press coverage recently included a greenhouse study of plant uptake of nanoparticles in hydroponic conditions and a study of microbe uptake of different nanoparticles. See here.

But, a paper in ES & T challenges the idea that silver nanoparticles are anything new. See here.

U. S. EPA proposed to classify prions as pests, making them subject to FIFRA, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. See publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register.

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