Abstract
Cabbage, beets, green beans, and butternut squash were grown in control and municipal sewage sludge-treated experimental plots. Freezedried edible portions of each vegetable fed at 25% of the diet to male Fischer rats for 12 weeks, indicated no differences in dietary intake or weight gain, nor were there any differences in blood levels of alpha-fetoprotein, a marker for hepatic preneoplastic transformation. Sludge-grown vegetables did not cause any differences in relative liver weight or in activity of the hepatic mono-oxygenases, aminopyrene-N-demethylase, orp-nitroanisole-O-demethylase, when compared to the same vegetable grown on control soil. There were no effects attributable to the sewage sludge treatment on liver cell ultrastructure. The level of cadmium in the kidneys of rats fed sludge-grown beets was twice that of the controls. The results of mutagenesis testing withS. typhimurium and microsomes (S-9) activation indicated a positive dose response with extracts of sludge-grown beans and in the urine of rats consuming sludge-grown beets. Although no overt toxicologic responses were observed in rats fed sludge-grown vegetables, these positive mutagenic changes create uncertainties in evaluation of potential risks involved in using municipal sludge on food-producing land.
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Boyd, J.N., Stoewsand, G.S., Babish, J.G. et al. Safety evaluation of vegetables cultured on municipal sewage sludge-amended soil. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 11, 399–405 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01056065
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01056065