CEN/TR 15584:2007

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-julij-2008
Karakterizacija blata - Vodilo za oceno tveganja s poudarkom na uporabi in
odlaganju blata
Characterisation of sludges - Guide to risk assessment especially in relation to use and
disposal of sludges
Charakterisierung von Schlämmen - Anleitung zur Risikobwertung im Besonderen im
Bezug auf Nutzung und Lagerung von Schlämmen
Caractérisation des boues - Guide pour l'évaluation du risque en relation avec l'usage et
le mise en décharge des boues
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TR 15584:2007
ICS:
13.030.40 Naprave in oprema za Installations and equipment
odstranjevanje in obdelavo for waste disposal and
odpadkov treatment
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

TECHNICAL REPORT
CEN/TR 15584
RAPPORT TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHER BERICHT
July 2007
ICS 13.030.40
English Version
Characterisation of sludges - Guide to risk assessment
especially in relation to use and disposal of sludges
Caractérisation des boues - Guide pour l'évaluation du Charakterisierung von Schlämmen - Anleitung zur
risque en relation avec l'usage et le mise en décharge des Risikobewertung im Besonderen im Bezug auf Nutzung und
boues Lagerung von Schlämmen
This Technical Report was approved by CEN on 3 March 2007. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 308.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
Management Centre: rue de Stassart, 36  B-1050 Brussels
© 2007 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TR 15584:2007: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
Foreword.3
1 Summary.4
2 Scope .5
3 Normative references .5
4 Terms and definitions .5
5 Introduction.7
5.1 Hazard, Risk and Communication.9
5.2 Risk Assessment and the Precautionary Principle.9
6 Source – Pathway – Receptor .10
7 A framework for environmental risk assessment and management.12
7.1 Problem formulation.13
7.2 Key stages of environmental risk assessment.14
7.3 The social aspects of risk .14
7.4 Risk screening and prioritisation.15
7.5 Quantification and dealing with uncertainty.15
7.6 Evaluating the significance of a risk.16
7.7 Options appraisal and decision-making .17
7.8 Monitoring .17
7.9 Risk Management .18
8 Examples of published risk assessments for use and disposal of sludges .19
8.1 USEPA risk assessment for the Federal Sewage Sludge Rules, 1992.19
8.2 USEPA risk assessment of dioxin-like substances in sewage sludge use and disposal,
2002 .20
8.3 UKWIR risk assessment of pathogen transmission associated with using sewage sludge
on farmland, 2003 .21
8.4 Abstracts of published risk assessments for sludges and related subjects .21
Annex A (informative) Glossary of acronyms commonly used in risk assessment .30
Annex B (informative) Extended text on risk assessment, communication and management.32
Annex C (informative) Rio Declaration on Environment and Development .71
Annex D (informative) Fault Tree Analysis (FTA).74
Bibliography .76
Foreword
This document (CEN/TR 15584:2007) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 308
“Characterisation of sludges”, the secretariat of which is held by AFNOR.
1 Summary
This report has been prepared within the framework of CEN/TC 308 on Characterization of Sludges. The
Scope includes sludges from treating municipal, industrial and food processing wastewaters, sludge from
treating raw water to make it potable, and other residues having similar potential environmental impacts.
The objectives of the report are to review the methodology of risk assessment, risk management and risk
communication especially as they have been applied to sludges. It includes references to, and reviews of,
some major risk assessments and abstracts of others that have been published.
Sludge is the inevitable residue of treating raw potable water and municipal and industrial wastewaters.
Treatment of these waters is designed to remove unwanted constituents from the water and concentrate them
into a small side-stream - “sludge”. The sludge may also contain surplus biomass cultured during biological
treatment processes. The objective of treatment is to avoid adverse impacts on the environment and human
health when the effluent is discharged into the environment or water is supplied for human consumption. The
concentration of beneficial constituents and of pollutants in (and health risks associated with) a sludge
depends on the initial quality of the wastewater or raw water, and the extent of treatment required to meet
quality standards for effluent discharge, and potable water.
Where effluent quality standards are raised, in order to reduce pollutant loads on the environment, the quantity
of sludge produced inevitably increases. To be consistent, the use or disposal of the sludge must also be
environmentally acceptable, sustainable and cost-effective. Sludge management typically represents about
half of the overall costs of wastewater treatment. Its management will become increasingly complex as
environmental standards become more stringent, and if outlets for sludge become more constrained by
legislation and public attitudes.
EU policy on waste is to promote waste avoidance, minimisation and recycling above disposal. Disposal of
sludge to sea ceased at the end of 1998. Disposal of sludges to landfill, which is currently the major outlet for
some sludges in Europe, is widely regarded as unsustainable. Sludge production cannot be avoided (although
the quantity can be reduced by treatment). The only remaining significant options are recycling or destruction
by combustion. Recycling options include use on land as an organic fertiliser or soil improver for farming, land
restoration, etc. Destruction options include combustion with or without energy recovery, gasification, and
using the sludge as a process fuel, with the ash being used or landfilled.
Many sludges and residues contain beneficial constituents and properties with positive environmental
advantages. For example, recycling phosphate and thus reducing the need to extract primary raw material
and extending the life of the planet’s reserves.
The EU has decided (CEC, 2000) that environmental policies should be proportionate to risk and non-
discriminatory. When there is sufficient information, there should be risk assessment and, when there is
insufficient information, measures should be put in place to fill the information gap and an interim
precautionary approach applied.
In popular understanding, “safe” can be interpreted as “something we don’t have to worry about”. There is a
social factor as well as the numerical factor. Some people talk of the “One-hit” model, especially for
carcinogens, which assumes that interaction of a single molecule with DNA could trigger mutation that could
replicate as cancer but if this were applied universally it would stop all activity. Doing risk assessment lets us
understand the aspects that drive the risk and therefore enables us to target the regulation – it improves the
way we regulate.
Risk assessment should inform a decision rather than support a decision that has already been taken, i.e. the
science should come first and then the politics (informed by the science). Equally the performance of risk
assessment needs to be adequately resourced (time, money, people, etc.), it needs to be transparent (i.e. the
models and assumptions should be published) and stakeholders need to be involved at the earliest stages.
The fundamental question is “risk of what to whom”. Risk communication has emerged as an essential
activity.
In order to increase public and stakeholder confidence the views of non-expert audiences may be brought into
the risk assessment process and supporting [background] documents should be published so that the
assumptions and models are clearly visible.
There is abundant information about the fate and transport of the constituents of sewage sludges, but less
information about the other sludges. However, relatively few risk assessments have been published.
2 Scope
The Scope of this document includes sludges from treating municipal, industrial and food processing
wastewaters, sludge from treating raw water to make it potable, and other residues having similar potential
environmental impacts.
The purpose of this document is to discuss risk assessment in general and especially as it has been applied
to sludges for an audience of specialists and non-specialists. The objective is to set risk assessment in the
context of policy making and operating sludge use and disposal.
3 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
Not applicable
4 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this report, the following terms and definitions apply:
4.1
harm
physical injury or damage to the health of people or damage to property or the environment
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.2
hazard
potential source of harm
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.3
risk
combination of the probability of occurrence of harm and the severity of that harm
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.4
perceived risk
sum of risk and “outrage” – outrage is what makes people upset
4.5
contaminant
substance, material or agent that is unwanted in a sludge
[CR 13455 : 1999]
4.6
pollutant
contaminant present in a sludge that due to its properties, amount or concentration causes harm
[CR 13455 : 1999]
4.7
potentially toxic element
chemical elements that have a potential to cause toxicity to humans, flora and fauna. Typically, this term
refers to “heavy metals” and others such as arsenic, selenium, boron, fluorine that exhibits a typical, dose
related, sharp toxicity curve
[CR 13455 : 1999]
4.8
user
anybody exposed to the product, including professional and non-professional (amateur) users, and general
public exposed not from a user standpoint
[CR 13455 : 1999]
4.9
intended use
use of a product, process or service in accordance with information provided by the supplier
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.10
reasonably foreseeable misuse
use of a product, process or service in a way not intended by the supplier, but which may result from readily
predictable human behaviour
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.11
safety
freedom from unacceptable risk
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.12
protective measure
means used to reduce risk
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.13
residual risk
risk remaining after protective measures have been taken
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.14
tolerable risk
risk that is accepted in a given context based on current values of society
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.15
risk analysis
systematic use of available information to identify hazards to estimate the risk
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.16
risk evaluation
procedure based on the risk analysis to determine whether the tolerable risk has been achieved
[ISO/IEC Guide 51]
4.17
risk assessment
overall process comprisi
...