Tomato plants grown on human waste water effluent OK to eat?

[astro]

Because tomato seeds have a gelatinous coating they can survive a trip through the intestine and the sewer system and are often seen in the spray fields of waste water treatment facilities where the waste water sludge is treated and sprayed on fields as a nitrogen enhancer and more bio-friendly way of breaking down the waste.

Not that these would be the first tomatoes of choice, but if I were hungry and desperate to wat them could these tomatoes potentially carry any pathogens, heavy metals or other harmful substances to the person consuming it because of the medium on which they were grown?


At the treatment plant

While often undigested tomato plants and pumpkin vines sprout out of the sludge

EHUF 411 - PLANT PROPAGATION

What happens to tomato seed which you "eat" when they pass through your body?

- nothing, it passes through the human digestive tract intact and ends up ready to grow Example, when Gas Works Park was built, they were in the early years of starting to compost and use sewage sludge as an organic soil amendment. Many of the "mountains" there were filled and shaped with Seattle sewage sludge. The following year, the ground was covered with a terrific cover of tomato plants. We no longer encourage the use of sewage sludge for areas where you are going to be planting edible crops.