Environmental Safety Assessment of Fertilizer Products

The danger posed by sewage sludges, although subjected to various treatment processes, contributes to the fact that fertilizers introduced into the soil pose a sanitary and ecological threat. Minimizing the risk of using fertilizers produced from sewage sludges is possible due to legal regulations, the most important of which are the Act of 26 July 2000 on fertilizers and fertilization and numerous regulations of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Due to the fact that some parameters such as pharmaceutical substances have not been included in legal regulations, comprehensive researches on the impact of fertilizers produced from sewage sludges are justified, in particular with regard to soil, ground and water environment and also on the quality of crops. Taking into account the current legal regulations and the diverse composition of sewage sludges, full safety analysis including both biological analyses and risk assessment is necessary to perform. As part of this work, the possibilities of environmental safety assessment of fertilizer products based on stabilized municipal sewage sludges are presented. This article presents the most popular methods of sewage sludge safety analysis in the following environment: leachate, ground and surface waters, soil and plants.