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A new food labeling bill, if passed, will ensure that consumers know when the food they are buying has been grown or produced on land where sewage sludge has been applied.

The bill, H.R. 262, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 6, 1999, by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) and referred to the Committee on Commerce and the Committee on Agriculture, is an amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the egg, meat, and poultry inspection laws.

The National Sludge Alliance is calling on supporters of consumers' right-to-know laws and anyone concerned about food safety to send letters to their congressional representatives to co-sponsor the food labeling bill and to their senators asking that they introduce a companion bill.

For further information about this action alert, contact the National Sludge Alliance, Box 130, Copake, NY 12516; (518) 329-2120; or http://lists.essential.org/1996/dioxin-l/msg00541.html.

For a comprehensive look at the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer, see "Redefining sludge: Activists search for answers about sludge and its impact on our food supply," The Workbook, Summer 1998 (Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 51-79). View an excerpt from this article.

A sample letter provided by the NSA reads:

Dear Senator ------,

I am writing to express my strong support for H.R. 262, introduced by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the egg, meat, and poultry inspection laws to ensure that consumers receive notification regarding food crops, livestock, or poultry raised on land on which sewage sludge was applied.

The federal ban on the ocean dumping of sludge without an investigation of alternatives and mandating enforceable safe methods and processes has put food, water, farmland, and consumers at risk. To meet the huge demand for cheap land-based sludge disposal, sludge generators and processors are aggressively promoting industrial contaminated sludge as an agricultural fertilizer. If sludge is not safe for the ocean, how can it be safe for food crop production?

Sludge is a toxic soup of industrial and household chemicals. Materials discharged to sewage treatment plants consist of residential, industrial, hospital wastes, runoff from streets and farmlands, and in some cases leachates from landfills, including Superfund sites. These wastes contain varying degrees of pathogens, heavy metals, man-made organic chemicals such as PCBs, dioxins, pharmaceuticals, industrial solvents, detergents, asbestos, and radioactive wastes. The EPA is promoting growing food on these contaminants without telling the public. As a consumer the decision to expose my family to this risk should rest with me and not a state or federal bureaucracy.

I urge your support and sponsorship of a companion bill in the Senate. This is a food labeling bill (H.R. 262) that will provide consumers with a basic "right to know." I look forward to your timely reply to this request.

Sincerely,

Your Name