BSE, The Bible and Biosolids: Fighting Fear with Fun, Frankness and Familiarity
If William Toffey can not convince us we are crazy -- then its best to make fun of us -- because the
industry is operating on instincts rather than science.
Can it be possibly true that biosolids are part of a process for making humans, as well as the soil, healthy! The
concern we hear in the community about exposure risks may prove, in the end, to have an ironic twist – it may be a
health benefit. Certainly, we need to explore the scientific aspect of the issue, and not cede ground on this one either.
One of the citations in the litany of “scientific” documents took me to some exciting health literature about which we
need to be more aware, science that proves the Hygiene Hypothesis, previously known as the Clean Kid Syndrome.
This hypothesis says that unless we are challenged as young people to dirt and manure, our bodies do not develop
an immune response that protects us from allergens and toxins; allergies, asthma and cancers can occur in higher
than expected incidence rates if kids are too clean!
Achieving a good quality biosolids product has been an afterthought in many treatment plant designs. In the future,
a commitment to a good looking and pleasant smelling biosolids will need to be foremost. We need to communicate
this new commitment to our utility customers.
The biosolids industry is facing many new questions -- emerging pathogens, persistent organic pollutants,
radioactivity, and endocrine disrupters. No matter how keenly our instincts tell us that these issues pose very little
risk, we have no conclusive data on the risks they pose. We are vulnerable to media stories and public meetings in
which the public concern spins out of control. Drew McAvoy, a scientist at Proctor and Gamble who presented
information on the fates of personal care products in biosolids at the Florida conference in early January, told me
that, with these exotic chemical issues, the issue really came down to this -- people are concerned about what they
don’t understand
Subj: william Toffey -- BSE, The Bible and Biosolids
Date: 4/20/2008 3:39:24 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
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BSE, The Bible and Biosolids: Fighting Fear with Fun, Frankness and Familiarity
William E. Toffey
January 22, 2004
This is the story as it appeared in the media:
Government officials have said repeatedly that there was no reason to question the safety… He said the bans …
have been based on perceptions of … disease and not on scientific facts. Pressure on the U.S. government to adopt
new …standards…. grew …as consumer and food-safety groups pressed for immediate policy changes… . A
coalition of advocacy groups… denounced the U.S. program…. The coalition presented a list of demands…. At the
same time, … the United States is considering changes to its program. But the... Coalition said…that those changes
don't go far enough…. Representatives of those groups called U.S. surveillance… inadequate. ''The lack of
oversight… could be a recipe for disaster,'' Pauley says. "Our recommendation is government shouldn't play public
relations games…." 1/
You can almost hear, in all of this, the word “biosolids,” can’t you? But these are quotations I took from recent media
coverage of Mad Cow disease, i.e., Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, a “wasting” disease of the brain in
ungulates. This disease devastated the UK beef industry several years ago. And when the story broke on
December 23 even President Bush rallied to ensure the public that he was still eating beef. But, lost on the public is
that 5,000 people die annually from food-borne illnesses, a predominant one being salmonella, to which young
children, the elderly and immuno-compromised persons are especially vulnerable.2/ David Robeik, Director of Risk
Communication, of the Havard Center for Risk Analysis, lamented the failure of the media to communicate risk so that
the public can make informed decisions and so money is not wasted 3/
This serves to emphasize my first point; biosolids is not alone in dealing with how the media treats issues without
appropriate reference to relative risk versus benefits. In fact, there is a long tradition of this phenomenon. (I
recommend to you a report with the subtitle of “unfounded health scares,” Facts Vs Fear, by the American Council
for Science and Health.4/ )
I suspect that topics, like biosolids, dealing with human waste may take on a special emotional content. Some of you
might find it difficult to comprehend why some folks take it all so seriously. Here is an example. You may have seen
the story the year before last here in California, involving the Copia Center in Napa. The Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights was on one side of the issue and the National Center Against Censorship (NCAC) on the
other. The issue, as reported by the NCAC on 1/7/2002, was this:
Always on the alert for "offensive" art work, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has once more found a
target: the work of Spanish artist Antoni Miralda exhibited at Copia, Napa Valley's new food, wine and arts museum.
The exhibition, "Active Ingredients," which runs through April 22, features specially commissioned food-related works
by seven contemporary artists. Miralda, a Catalonian artist based in Miami, filled 11 refrigerated soda cases with
found objects as part of his continuing project "Food Culture Museum." Among the objects are 35 figurines, each
about the size of a chess piece, of different characters sitting on potties (among them several nuns, the pope, Fidel
Castro, and Santa Claus). These figures are called "caganers" and are part of a Catalonian peasant tradition. 5/
Investigating this further, I learned the caganer occupies a place of honor in the back corner of the Catalonian
crèche, back behind the donkeys, cows and other animals. When the Catholic League complained, the Association
of Friends of the Caganer (for more information, visit www.caganer.com) rose to its defense, as did the leadership of
the Roman Catholic Church in Spain. No offense was understood to be associated with the caganer in that part of
the world; in fact, the symbolism of the caganer embraces the fecundity of humankind in nature. Yet, something
about the caganer had definitely rubbed some folks wrong here in the U.S. Clearly, some folks are very squeamish
and humorless when it comes to matters of human waste.
Let’s look, now, at the other side of the coin. The story of the caganer reveals that the “message” of recycling waste
can be framed in a way that harmonizes with the artistic, spiritual and emotional side of human existence. Our
profession needs not cede ground to the anti-biosolids activists on the “oughtness” of biosolids recycling; it is not the
lesser of several evils, but the best of some good alternatives. I believe, though, we have not yet found words to
express this point of view.
Following my 5 seconds of fame on the CBS Evening News, I received some earnest email from a few folks whose
names would be undoubtedly familiar to you, purporting to have the information that refuted my claim that biosolids
was safe to handle. One of the citations in the litany of “scientific” documents took me to some exciting health
literature about which we need to be more aware, science that proves the Hygiene Hypothesis, previously known as
the Clean Kid Syndrome. This hypothesis says that unless we are challenged as young people to dirt and manure,
our bodies do not develop an immune response that protects us from allergens and toxins; allergies, asthma and
cancers can occur in higher than expected incidence rates if kids are too clean! I came across an article by
epidemiologist John Lange that offered the observation that cigarette-smoking sewage workers had a lower than
expected incidence of lung cancer and asthma because of pulsed exposure to endotoxins, particles that are the
fragments of cell walls of coliform bacteria. 6/ I spoke to John; he mused how he has been to meetings where citizens
are screaming about dioxin in the soil, but they take a break to smoke. “I tell them, if they want to do something
meaningful for the health of the community, they would stop their kids from smoking.” 7/
Thanks to the folks on the “other side” of the biosolids issue, I now have a new line of inquiry. Human beings were
meant to be a bit dirty. Can it be possibly true that biosolids are part of a process for making humans, as well as the
soil, healthy! The concern we hear in the community about exposure risks may prove, in the end, to have an ironic
twist – it may be a health benefit. Certainly, we need to explore the scientific aspect of the issue, and not cede
ground on this one either.
The issue is fundamentally FEAR, and the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of our response to that fear.
The sources of fear seem to be multiplying. The biosolids industry is facing many new questions -- emerging
pathogens, persistent organic pollutants, radioactivity, and endocrine disrupters. No matter how keenly our instincts
tell us that these issues pose very little risk, we have no conclusive data on the risks they pose. We are vulnerable
to media stories and public meetings in which the public concern spins out of control. Drew McAvoy, a scientist at
Proctor and Gamble who presented information on the fates of personal care products in biosolids at the Florida
conference in early January, told me that, with these exotic chemical issues, the issue really came down to this --
people are concerned about what they don’t understand. 8/
This is an echo of the message from John Lange and Daniel Robeik. People fear that which they cannot understand
and which is unfamiliar because they have not or cannot see, touch or feel it.
And, it is very easy to be afraid of biosolids. Back in 1998, science journalist Jon Franklin spoke to our biosolids
industry at the specialty conference about this fear. He wrote:
“It is a holy mother, in many minds, something more than a planet, a spiritual entity, Gaia!
And haven't you heard?
Someone is poisoning the earth!
So here we are: This is about poisons, which is to say venom, which can be manifest as hatred, and there is certainly
plenty of that. Fundamentalists hate the biologists, for the evolutionary theory they espouse. The legions of Jeremy
Rifkin hate the genetic engineers. The far left hates the physicists, and their radioactive, reductionistic ways. The
animal rights folk hate the experimental biologists. And you? Where do you fit?
I am reminded of a thing that someone found on the internet, a slogan that cuts through all the euphemisms and
collapses the argument down to something people can feel. The slogan is: Eat biosolids and die!
Put differently, biosolids are poisons. That's what people say is in your sludge, right? Poisons?
And you are in favor of spreading it across the good earth, mother earth?
Look at what technology has done! There are poisons everywhere. Pesticides, herbicides, pathogens, carcinogens,
pcbs, dioxins -- Alar on our apples, heavy metals in our fish, strange genes in our tomatoes, electromagnetic waves
in our electric blankets, chemicals in our baby food, nuclei in the groundwater. And we are going beyond mere
poisons, now. I am speaking of SIN, my friends. Sin and evil. I am saying BEWARE the DEVIL and . ...
Oh.
I see all these bland faces. You think I changed subjects on you? I'm afraid you have your Enlightenment blinders
on.” 9/
And, the fear factor has evolved over the past couple of years to include the sin of greed and sloth. Synagro, the
best example of a company operating in a nation-wide realm, seems to be the particular target of this fear-
mongering. Stealing a page from the attack in Seattle on the World Trade Organization, activist are leveling the
charge that biosolids is evil for it’s a representation of the power of the big corporation against the defenseless
community. At a rally in my home state this past summer, activists speakers linked biosolids to “corporate greed and
power.” A Pennsylvania based organization, the Center for Environmental Legal Defense Fund, has developed a
Model Ordinance on Corporate Personhood, intended to give local townships teeth in regulating “corporate farms”
and in opposing “Class B sewage sludge.” 10/
David Lewis draws on this same theme in the illustration adorning his web site 11/. The picture he has drawn is of
slothful public agencies and a greedy industry acting in ways that injure innocent people and, not surprisingly,
altruistic scientists, implicitly including himself. Russell Pennock in Pennsylvania, whose son had died of a staph
infection, contacted Lewis about six years after his son had died. The Pennocks and others in their neighborhood
had had persistent complaints with odors from a biosolids application site. Finding Lewis’s opinion on the link
between infections (sludge victim syndrome) was inevitable once the community turned to the Internet in search of
“truth.” The story is compelling; it hearkens to a theme echoed in mythology and is older than human history.
CBS Evening News, as all news programs do, tells stories. The Pennock story had been six months in the making
when I first heard about it at WEFTEC in Los Angeles. When I got a call from Ned Beecher of the New England
Biosolids and Residuals Association, the story was very nearly wrapped up. Even though notable experts in the
biosolids research profession had spent hours of time being interviewed for the CBS story, the pro-biosolids side was
not being told. 12/ Beecher was making a last ditch effort to help the story’s producer, Sally Garner, find a venue for
the CBS camera crew when he called my on October 23. Several options had fallen through, including Washington,
DC, Los Angeles and Nashua, New Hampshire. We had two days to get come up with an alternative.
Barbara Grant, Philadelphia Mayor John Street’s press coordinator, nixed Philadelphia, after a full day of “screwing
around.” It was the eve of the local mayoral election, and an FBI bugging of the Mayor’s office had been occupying
local front-page news. More than that, when Grant worked at the local CBS affiliate, she had interviewed the
Pennocks, and she knew just how compelling the story was. Philadelphia’s biosolids would not be filmed, nor would
Bill Toffey be a Philadelphia representative.
I called Ron Delo, executive director of the Rockland County (NY) Sewer District, and president of MABA. Ron and
his board said, sure, they would welcome the opportunity to host CBS News.
CBS’s Sally Garner was clear with me about what she wanted for the story. Missing from her story was someone from
the industry who could say that biosolids was safe. She warned me, “you will be shocked when you hear what we
have the EPA guy saying.” This proved true. She also commented, “I can be having a good interview with a
scientists, and then they say ‘BUT’. That leaves an opening you can drive a bus through.”
We were about two hours at Ron’s facility with the CBS duo, Sally and her cameraman. We spent an hour filming
biosolids moving on the belt in the centrifuge room and falling into the truck, and another hour was spent filming my
interview in the control room. A full fifteen minutes of this was my repeatedly spilling biosolids (an anaerobically
digested, centrifuge dewatered cake – really beautiful) out of beaker and into my hand while talking, and posing with
the biosolids in my hand for the camera at different angles.
As I walked Sally back to her car I asked her, “Why do you think this issue creates so much upset?”
Sally said, “Your industry has no respect for the community. You go out there, do your thing, and don’t tell the
neighbors anything. When people see the trucks and smell the odors, you come running out show your stacks of
information, hide behind regulations, and then are surprised when people are upset. George Clarke sent me piles
and piles of reports from Synagro that I could never go through, but it seems that legitimate scientists disagree with
your scientists. My objective is to give a balanced story, but you all have to do a better job telling your side.” The
result was the story that aired on October 29, “Sewage Fertilizer Under Fire.” 13/
So that’s it. Everyone here is responsible for telling the story, selling the benefits of biosolids, and working to
address, respectfully and thoroughly, the concerns of the citizens, before the fear, followed by the outrage, arises.
From stories of Mad Cow Disease and the Caganer, we learn that the “vast unknown” frightens people, and it only
takes a few frightened people to make front-page news.
Ned Beecher and his team on the WERF project call the task ahead of us “public relationship building.” 14/ When I
look at the big picture, I call it “Fighting Fear with Fun, Frankness and Familiarity.”
What are some of the steps have proved successful here in California and elsewhere to accomplish this?
Empower Citizen Advisory Groups. This is not a common approach on the East Coast, but I have learned that it is
used with good effect out here in California. To the extent that representatives of the public, not wedded to one utility’
s own projects and programs, are invited to explore choices and advise agency officials on biosolids, the agency
overcomes the popularized expectation of a hidden agenda. These meetings may not be fun, but they are a forum
for frankness and familiarity.
Acknowledge Cooperators in Land Application Program. This approach has been used to great effect in several
communities in Pennsylvania. The landowners and farmers who use biosolids are presented with recognition
breakfast and certificates. Participants are photographed, and the event submitted to local newspapers, which are
more often than not happy to put the story in the paper. I have an article from a paper in our largest agricultural
county that carries the headline “State of art process honors farm participants” (The Ephrata Review, 11/11/1998, p
A22). They are talking about land application of biosolids cake.
Tell the Story of the Benefits. Mine reclamation is particularly well suited to the kind of “before-and-after” story that
intrigues news reporters. In the vicinity of our reclamation work in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, are particularly
supportive story ran under the headline: “Nurturing Nature.”15/ True, the emphasis was on the wildlife, and not until
the jump to the inside pages of the story did the fact that biosolids was used come to light. But, is that all that bad?
After all, the emphasis should be on the result, not on the product. And, it always help if the message is sold with
enthusiasm. Inquirer reporter Dawn Fallik wrote: “William Toffey, who oversees Philadelphia’s waste program, swears
it is safe. He is, in fact, a little giddy about composted human waste. ‘Biosolids are fun,’ he said.”
Cultivate Responsiveness to the Press. Too many of our agencies and companies seem scared of the media, such
that opportunities to provide “our side of the story” are lost. I find, too, that “background” information on the projects,
practices, and processes of biosolids use are not easily found on the internet, and do not pop up in the venues
where science and technology reporters go to look for them. We need to fill in these gaps.
Look for An Entre Into the Classroom. Now, 9/11 may have sidetracked some outreach programs, but agencies
would still do well to offer tours of their wastewater and solids handling processes by classrooms and other
organizations. I would recommend your agency stock several books to give away to visiting classrooms: Everyone
Poops for the teacher visiting from the elementary school, and Flush! Treating Wastewater, 16/ by Karen Coombs is
appropriate for Middle School. For a more general, fun and ironic story of environmentalism gone awry, check out
Gary Larson’s There’s A Hair in My Dirt! A Worm’s Story. 17/
Respond Promptly to Concerns. Pennsylvania is home to notoriously destructive stories about ill effects of biosolids.
We have the Tony Behun story, the Daniel Pennock Story, and the school shut down in Upper Mount Bethel. Each of
these stories arose out of a particularly obnoxious odor incident, where the community was left with the impression
that the parties responsible for the application site and for its regulation were unwilling to control the nuisances.
Outrage ensued, and outrage is remembered. In my experience, the upset lasts more than a decade. We as a
professional group need to be vigilant to incidences where communities find themselves impacted in an unacceptable
way and somehow intervene to prevent damage that goes beyond the initial incident.
Commit to Continual Improvement in Processes and Programs. I personally believe that the wastewater profession is
close to a breakthrough in its understanding of causal relationships between wastewater processes and inherent
qualities of odorant emissions from biosolids products. But we need to have our agencies and its supporting cadre of
consultants and suppliers ready to change to adopt new approaches when they become available. Achieving a good
quality biosolids product has been an afterthought in many treatment plant designs. In the future, a commitment to a
good looking and pleasant smelling biosolids will need to be foremost. We need to communicate this new
commitment to our utility customers.
Present the Biosolids Story to Other Environmental Professionals. Here I am again, in Palm Springs, preaching to
the choir! I need to ask myself, wouldn’t my time be better spent talking to professionals in public health, agriculture,
public works, grounds maintenance, toxicology, etc., so that they can learn the basics of our industry’s practices and
its issues? After all, these are the gatekeepers of public opinion in many cases. I invite you to join me in this effort?
The National Association of Conservation Districts is meeting in Hawaii the first week of February.
What these steps have in common is that they put public utilities into the role going beyond service providers to
becoming familiar personalities in their communities. No longer can they be providing a “flush and forget” service.
And, they must see as a core function, while carrying out their basic clean water and recycling mission, a range of
activities intended to involve the public, activities that are not only committee meetings, but ones that are fun and
engaging.
The bottom line: “We need to fight fear by being fun, frank and familiar!”
REFERENCES:
These quotations are compiled from various on-line news articles on Yahoo! And MSN news.
PS Mead, L Slutsker, V Dietz, LF McCaig, JS Bresee, C Shapiro, PM Griffin, and RV Tauxe. “Food-Related Illness
and Death in the United States.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.cdc.
gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no5/mead.htm. In Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC Vol. 5, No. 5, September–October 1999.
David Ropeik. “Mad Cow and the Media,” The Washington Post: Wednesday, December 31, 2003; Page A19.
AJ Lieberman and SC Kwon, “Facts Versus Fears, Third Edition: A Review of the Greatest Unfounded Health Scares
of Recent Times.” American Council on Science and Health, 1998, at
http://www.acsh.org/publications/reports/factsfears.html.
“Catholic League Objects to Traditional Figurines in Art Installation.” National Coalition Against Censorship, January
7, 2002. At website: www.ncac.org/issues/antonimiralda.html.
JH Lange, G Mastrangelo, KW Thomulke. “Will sewage workers with endotoxin related symptoms have the benefit of
reduced lung cancer?” PostScript, Occup Environ Med 2003; 60:144 (October 2003)
Telephone interview with John Lange, EnviroSafe, Pittsburgh, PA, November 11, 2003
Telephone interview with Drew McAvoy, Proctor and Gamble, Cincinnati,OH, January 16, 2004
Jon Franklin. “When Biosolids Hit the Fan.” Presentation to the WEF Residuals and Biosolids Specialty Conference,
July 1998, Bellevue, Washington. Copyright 1998 by Jon Franklin, jonfrank@nasw.org
RL Grossman, TA Linzey, DE Brannen, “Model Amici Curiae Brief to Eliminate Corporate Rights,” 9/23/2003, at http:
//www.ratical.org/corporations/demoBrief.html and the TA Linzey, “Model Ordinance on Corporate Personhood,” at
http://www.celdf.org/scm/ord/ord12.asp
David Lewis, “Land Applying Sewage Sludges,” at http://members.aol.com/lewisdavel/#Sludge.
Telephone interview with George Clarke, Synagro, Washington, DC, October 30, 2003.
Sally Garner, “Sewage Fertilizer Under Fire,” Robesonia, Penn., Oct. 29, 2003, CBS Evening News.
Ned Beecher, Biosolids: Understanding Public Perception and Participation. Water Environment Research
Federation, Alexandria, VA, 2003.
Lisa Price, “Reading Anthracite, game commission revitalize a habitat,” Pottsville Republican and Evening Herald,
October 23, 2002; also Rob Wheary, “Positive outlook for biosolids,” News-Item (Shamokin, PA), July 1, 2003; and
Dawn Fallik, “City Sludge, Country Qualms,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 3, 2003.
See, for instance, Taro Gomi, Everyone Poops, Kane/Miller Publishers, and Karen Mueller Coombs. Flush!: Treating
Wastewater.. Illustrated with photographs by Jerry Boucher. Carolrhoda. 56pp. ISBN library: 0-87614-879-8.
Gary Larson, There’s a Hair in My Dirt: A Worm’s Story. 1998.