Fertiliser contamination shock

by Peter Mac

How do you like your vegies? How about some asparagus with a generous dose 
of cadmium, or some nice fresh carrots spiced with excess 
radioactivity?

Last week news surfaced concerning the use of blast furnace and zinc 
smelter waste to produce fertiliser contaminated with heavy metals and even 
excessive radioactivity.

Farmers are said to like the fertiliser because of its effectiveness in 
stimulating growth, and because (as one grower put it enthusiastically) 
"It's really cheap!".

Zinc sulphate has been used for decades as an effective fertiliser, with no 
side effects as long as it is relatively pure.

However, a batch of fertiliser derived from industrial waste was recently 
tested and found to contain 110,000 times the maximum level of heavy metals 
regarded as safe under NSW law. It is said to be particularly heavily 
impregnated with cadmium.

Use of this product, which is readily soluble because of its granular form, 
also has the potential to render the soil in which it is used as 
permanently unsafe for agricultural purposes.

In order to reduce the costs of treating the industrial waste, the 
Australian processors and distributors of the fertiliser have used a 
loophole in Australian law, which does not require the re-testing of 
imported products for heavy metal contaminants.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the States have different 
requirements regarding safe levels of use, labelling and analysis of 
industrial waste, and by the unwillingness of the Howard Government to 
impose a strict and uniform regulatory regime on the importers and the 
fertiliser manufacturers.

To do so effectively would require extending the role of government testing 
authorities, or the formation of new authorities. Something that State And 
Federal Governments are not interested in doing, given their commitment to 
privatisation of government services, and the implementation of "quality 
assurance regimes" and self-regulation.

The Greens have called for a formal parliamentary inquiry into the use of 
industrial waste in the manufacture of fertiliser.

A Greens spokesperson said last week that "The loopholes are ... a crater 
of community risk that is being created by self-regulation and the lack of 
tough regulation by the Commonwealth

"We need a national inquiry into how and where it is being used, with the 
aim of getting tough on the fertiliser companies, because self-regulation 
is not good enough for farmers and consumers, the Greens spokesperson said.