‚OUR PHOSPHORUS FUTURE‘ REPORT — The “Our Phosphorus Future” project has engaged over 80 scientists and experts worldwide to develop a global report on phosphorus (P) sustainability challenges, and aims to provide the evidence base for global action. The project was supported by the United Nations Environment Fund (UNEP) and European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP). A call for a global science initiative on phosphorus was launched at the 3rd European Sustainable Phosphorus Conference in Helsinki in 2018) with over 500 signatories. The report addresses phosphate resources and uses, food and agriculture systems and consumption, water quality, recycling and recovering. An overview of the questions addressed in the ‘Our Phosphorus Future’ (OPF) report was already published in Nature Food, February 2021, see below. The conclusions of Our Phosphorus Future were presented and discussed at ESPC4 in Vienna on 20-22 June 2022.
OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL P SUSTAINABILITY QUESTIONS — The short article ‘Global Actions for a Sustainable Phosphorus Future’ published in Nature Food outlines key global issues of phosphorus sustainability, covering agriculture, water quality, food production and consumption, waste management, recycling, phosphate rock resources. It points out that despite the known environmental challenges around phosphorus (planetary boundaries, eutrophication and harmful algal blooms), which are likely to be accentuated by climate change, phosphorus remains largely absent from global intergovernmental agendas, though some targets are now being considered. The Nature Food article underlines that issues are highly region-specific: in Africa, current trends of insufficient phosphorus fertilizer use could lead to 30% crop yield losses by 2050, whereas in other regions “excess fertilizer application is threatening water quality”. Actions to address these challenges are indicated, including reducing consumption of animal products in diets, phosphorus recycling, optimizing livestock diet phosphorus and its uptake (e.g. phytase), addressing ‘legacy phosphorus’ in soils and sediments, improving phosphorus efficiency of crops, better fertilizer distribution in poorer countries, public awareness and phosphorus foot-printing, as well as actions to reduce impacts of algal blooms.
NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS OF P INTAKE ON HEALTH — Analysis of US national data shows no meaningful associations between P intake and mortality and limited correlations with cholesterol, kidney markers or (lower) blood pressure. US NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data were analyzed from the 1988-1994 through to 2001-2006 surveys. This survey entitled ‘Association of Total, Added, and Natural Phosphorus Intakes with Biomarkers of Health Status and Mortality in Healthy Adults in the United States’ includes test data on relevant biomarkers, such as blood levels of P, kidney-function markers, cholesterol and blood pressure, mortality and cardio-vascular disease data, and also a diet questionnaire. The authors suggest that phosphorus may reduce blood pressure by increasing parathyroid hormone levels. The authors note that natural P in food and P in food additives appear to have disparate health effects and recommend that better information is needed on P food additive levels in diet, further research is needed to better understand possible differing health impacts of natural and added phosphates, and that regulators should consider defining different dietary specifications for natural and for food additive P in diets.
