The European Union has developed the draft of a “Working document on sludge” (EU 2000), to promote the use of sewage sludge in agriculture while improving the safety and harmonize quality standards. It proposes limit values for concentrations of heavy metals and organic compounds that should restrict the use of sewage sludge in agriculture if the limits are exceeded and provides suggestions for good practice in treatment and agricultural use. The Joint Research Center’s objective with this desk study was to give an overview on the occurrence of organic compounds in sewage sludge, basic toxicological data (. teratogenic, mutagenic, cancerogenic.
