If you go to:
http://prwatch.org/
You will see that they wrote a book (actually several) and one is titled Toxic Sludge is Good For You.
They did it as an example of corporate PR. However, a representative of the industry called them and thanked them for the good job getting the word out. Obviously, they did not read the book.
db
Caveat Lector-
(Linked from Unknown News - http://www.unknownnews.net/)
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/chico/2002-05-02/cover.asp
Fields of poison
Patty Martin uncovered a horrible truth about fertilizer in her hometown of
Quincy, Wash. Her discovery raises the question: What are Californians
spreading on their crops, lawns and gardens?
By Tom Gascoyne
excerpt
When Martin and the farmers first uncovered the practice--the selling of
industrial waste as fertilizer rather than paying to ship it and bury it in
hazardous-waste dumps--it was illegal. Since no one monitored the ingredients
in fertilizer, however, industries involved in chrome plating, iron smelting,
mining, steel works, electronic components, petroleum refining and even
coal-fired power plants were attracted by the lure of improving the bottom
line and opted for the cheaper manner of disposal.
As long as the hazardous waste included one of the three macronutrients used
by plants, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, or any of 13 micronutrients,
including zinc, copper and iron, the waste qualified as fertilizer, no matter
what other chemicals were in the mix.
According to Fateful Harvest, the practice was begun as early as 1954 by a
man named Dick Camp Sr., who ran a galvanizing shop in Tacoma. The process
produced a byproduct containing zinc that had no practical purpose for Camp.
He stored the stuff in barrels behind his shop. But the day he learned that
zinc sulfate was used as fertilizer for apple trees, a light bulb went on
above his head, and a new industry was born.
