NDP Critic for Health and Long-Term Care France Gélinas is calling on the Ontario government to put an immediate moratorium on using sewage sludge as a fertilizer for crop fields.

“There are too many unanswered questions about the human health effects of sludge to allow this practice to continue. Especially when we don’t know the health impacts, why take the risk and use sewer sludge on our crops?” said Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt.

Each year in Ontario, 120,000 tons of sludge are spread on 15,000 hectares of crop fields – yet there is no systematic monitoring of sludge-related health concerns.

Among other substances discharged into sewers and homes, sludge contains bacteria, viruses and parasites which are linked to a wide range of illness and diseases. The US Environmental Protection Agency has found germs causing typhoid, cholera, hepatitis A, polio and amoebic dysentery in sludge in the U.S.

“Many governments – local and national -- have banned or restricted the use of sludge on crops, while a number of companies refuse to sell food that has been fertilized with sludge. Shouldn’t that raise the red flag that what goes into our sewers should not go into our stomachs?” said Gélinas.

The NDP joins the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario and the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (formerly Canadian Infectious Disease Society) in calling for an immediate moratorium on using sludge as a crop fertilizer and for monitoring to determine the effect of biosolids on health.

“Ontarians should have confidence that our food is safe. We simply don’t know the impact of eating food that’s been fertilized by our sewers to justify this practice,” said Gélinas.