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NAACP calls for investigation into sludge from JHU-associated study
Issue date: 4/17/08
The president of the Maryland chapter of the NAACP has implored the state's attorney general to conduct a criminal and civil rights investigation into a Hopkins-associated study that put sludge in the yards of poor black families to determine its effect on lead in the soil.
Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches, wants Attorney General Douglas Gansler to determine whether the participants were fully informed of the risks and what role Hopkins and the Kennedy-Krieger Institute had in the study.
Sludge is a fertilizer created from human and industrial waste products and is commonly used in gardening and agriculture, but there have been concerns about the material's epidemiological ramifications.
Hopkins and the U.S. Department of Agriculture selected nine low-income Baltimore families for their 2000 study in which sludge was tilled into their yards. The researchers determined that the sludge increased the soil's ability to trap lead and other harmful contaminants, reducing the risk of lead poisoning.
The families consented to having the sludge used in their yards and received food coupons in exchange for their cooperation, but critics believe they were not told of the concerns about health risks of sludge usage. In his letter to the attorney general Stansbury calls for an investigation to determine whether the participants truly gave informed consent.
Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches, wants Attorney General Douglas Gansler to determine whether the participants were fully informed of the risks and what role Hopkins and the Kennedy-Krieger Institute had in the study.
Sludge is a fertilizer created from human and industrial waste products and is commonly used in gardening and agriculture, but there have been concerns about the material's epidemiological ramifications.
Hopkins and the U.S. Department of Agriculture selected nine low-income Baltimore families for their 2000 study in which sludge was tilled into their yards. The researchers determined that the sludge increased the soil's ability to trap lead and other harmful contaminants, reducing the risk of lead poisoning.
The families consented to having the sludge used in their yards and received food coupons in exchange for their cooperation, but critics believe they were not told of the concerns about health risks of sludge usage. In his letter to the attorney general Stansbury calls for an investigation to determine whether the participants truly gave informed consent.
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