The chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced on Monday that the Committee would look into the government’s funding of research in an underprivileged, black neighborhoods to test whether sewage sludge might protect children from lead- poisoning in the soil.

According to the report, of the Associated Press, on Sunday that the blend of human and manufacturing wastes from sewage management plants was applied on the lawns of nine poor families in Baltimore and an unoccupied lot near an elementary school in East St. Louis, Ill., to find whether lead in the soil from chipped paint and car drains would join to it.

This research was sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency and it was done in 2001 and 2002.

sludge

The Senate committee explained that investigations on the health impact of using sludge as manure and the administration’s support of the practice over the past three decades would be made before the end of this summer.

“Our inquiry will comprise an assessment of the risks connected with application of sludge in neighborhoods as reportedly happened in Baltimore,” stated Sen.Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the committee’s chairman.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has been asked to investigate the conditions of the research and whether contributors in the Baltimore study offered informed approval.

Researchers told that the families were guaranteed that the sludge was harmless, but they were not explained that there have been some health issues over the use of sludge.

The study showed that phosphate and iron in sludge could enhance the ability of soil to catch damaging metals like lead, cadmium and zinc, causing the blend to go through a child’s body without bringing harh if eaten.Other researchers are doubtful about that finding.

The committee also wanted to know about the role of Johns Hopkins University and the Kennedy Krieger Institute they played in the study in Baltimore.According to Raquel Guillory, a spokesperson for Gansler, the attorney general’s office would investigate the matter.

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