Food Standards Agency
Thursday 2 July 2009
Safer food better business banner
AZ-Directory
What's NewRSS
What is RSS?Listen
Listen to this siteWednesday 20 October 2004
This research project will provide information to enable the FSA to assess the impact on consumers of radioactivity discharged into the sewer system.
Study Duration : March 2000 to November 2004
Contractor : Enviros Consulting Ltd
The Food Standards Agency needs to assess the doses received by consumers from food as a result of discharges of radioactivity into the sewer system. This project will provide information on the characteristics of sewage works which will enable the Agency to make better estimates of the doses that consumers may receive.
Information will be collected to identify those sewage works which receive discharges of radioactive material. The companies operating these works will be contacted to obtain information on the characteristics of the works which will affect the transfer of radioactivity into the sewage sludge and effluent from the works.
To assess the impact of radioactivity discharged into the sewer system on consumers who eat foods produced on land treated with sewage sludge, the Food Standards Agency needs information about sewage treatment works. This information is used to help calculate the proportion of the radioactivity discharged into sewers, which is transferred into sewage sludge and the proportion that is removed in waste water. Once the concentration of radioactivity in the sewage sludge has been calculated, estimates can be made of the amount of radioactivity that may be transferred to foods.
The contractor has identified data on more than 200 sewage treatment works in the UK. The data collected includes information on the volume of effluent discharged, total effluent treated, average suspended solid load, annual sludge production, including its solid/water content, and its point of discharge. An Access database of collated data has been produced as well as the data being included in the project report.
The final report is available from the Agency's Information Centre.
To obtain a copy, please contact the Enquiry Desk, Information Services, Food Standards Agency (tel: 020 7276 8181/8182 or email: infocentre@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk )
Contact
: For any enquiries concerning this research project, please contact the relevant programme contact or email:
science@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
Find out what our other sites have to offer