Risk assessments for quality-assured, source-segregated composts and anaerobic digestates for a circular bioeconomy in the UK.

Autor: Longhurst PJ; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom., Tompkins D; Waste and Resources Action Programme, Second Floor, Blenheim Court, 19 George Street, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 5BH, United Kingdom., Pollard SJT; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: s.pollard@cranfield.ac.uk., Hough RL; The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, Scotland, United Kingdom., Chambers B; RSK ADAS Limited, Spring Lodge, 172 Chester Road, Helsby, WA6 0AR, United Kingdom., Gale P; Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodham Lane, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, United Kingdom., Tyrrel S; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom., Villa R; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom., Taylor M; RSK ADAS Limited, Spring Lodge, 172 Chester Road, Helsby, WA6 0AR, United Kingdom., Wu S; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom; Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7FS, United Kingdom., Sakrabani R; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom., Litterick A; Earthcare Technical Limited, Manor Farm, Chalton, Waterlooville, Hampshire PO8 0BG, United Kingdom., Snary E; Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodham Lane, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, United Kingdom., Leinster P; Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom., Sweet N; Waste and Resources Action Programme, Second Floor, Blenheim Court, 19 George Street, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 5BH, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environment international [Environ Int] 2019 Jun; Vol. 127, pp. 253-266. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Mar 28.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.03.044
Abstrakt: A circular economy relies on demonstrating the quality and environmental safety of wastes that are recovered and reused as products. Policy-level risk assessments, using generalised exposure scenarios, and informed by stakeholder communities have been used to appraise the acceptability of necessary changes to legislation, allowing wastes to be valued, reused and marketed. Through an extensive risk assessment exercise, summarised in this paper, we explore the burden of proof required to offer safety assurance to consumer and brand-sensitive food sectors in light of attempts to declassify, as wastes, quality-assured, source-segregated compost and anaerobic digestate products in the United Kingdom. We report the residual microbiological and chemical risks estimated for both products in land application scenarios and discuss these in the context of an emerging UK bioeconomy worth £52bn per annum. Using plausible worst case assumptions, as demanded by the quality food sector, risk estimates and hazard quotients were estimated to be low or negligible. For example, the human health risk of E. coli 0157 illness from exposure to microbial residuals in quality-assured composts, through a ready-to-eat vegetable consumption exposure route, was estimated at ~10 -8 per person per annum. For anaerobic digestion residues, 7 × 10 -3 cases of E. coli 0157 were estimated per annum, a potential contribution of 0.0007% of total UK cases. Hazard quotients for potential chemical contaminants in both products were insufficient in magnitude to merit detailed quantitative risk assessments. Stakeholder engagement and expert review was also a substantive feature of this study. We conclude that quality-assured, source-segregated products applied to land, under UK quality protocols and waste processing standards, pose negligible risks to human, animal, environmental and crop receptors, providing that risk management controls set within the standards and protocols are adhered to.
(Crown Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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