She comments: Like the representative below, I too was "extremely alarmed" by this headline until I realized this doesn't involve our team, simply the possible environmental degradation of poor communities of color. Whew.
Lawmakers Call for sludge Investigation The Examiner (04.18.08)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Elijah Cummings accused researchers of toying with lives and public safety and called Thursday for a federal investigation into sewage sludge experiments conducted in poor, black communities in Baltimore.
“It’s extremely alarming,” Cummings told The Examiner. “When you have a situation where the risks are not communicated to the subjects, protocols are questionable and you put people’s lives in danger, I think that’s a poor foundation...”
....Scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture spread sludge on the yards of nine low-income families to test if it would reduce the danger from lead in the soil, a result of paint chipping from the homes.
The scientists used Class A sludge — human waste treated to eliminate pathogens and commonly sold at hardware stores — said Bryan Stark, spokesman for the Kennedy Krieger Institute, which helped select study participants.
“We wanted to do prevention, rather than just treatment, and since we knew that the source of the lead was the dirt in these yards and paint, we decided to attack the source,” said Gary Goldstein, president of Kennedy “This has been an enormous success.” Goldstein also said it was composted sludge.
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