Gardening & Landscaping Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gardeners and landscapers. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
During the process of composting, is it dangerous for kids to play with? I mean to say is it okay if a child plays close to a compost heap or touches the material with their bare hands? I heard about bacteria living in the compost.
From the article Compost Pile Hazards by Nick Gromicko on nachi.org:
Compost can be a breeding ground for dangerous pathogens, some of which have killed or seriously harmed unsuspecting gardeners. Inspectors should familiarize themselves with these illnesses.
There are bacteria in compost heaps; but bacteria are everywhere, including within and on our bodies. In fact, bacteria in a human being outnumber human cells by 10 to 1, but we need the bacteria to survive, so bacteria are not always bad. A child simply touching a compost bin is unlikely to come to harm, any more than they would by touching soil on the ground which, by the way, is also chockful of bacteria. I wouldn't recommend letting the child rummage around inside the compost bin because of their tendency to put their fingers in their mouths, plus what they might be breathing in whilst doing it, but just being close, or touching, the outside of a compost bin is no more harmful than anything else, assuming the usual handwashing routine is followed after playing outside, before eating. I'm assuming your compost bin does not contain flesh or bones though, merely the usual primarily vegetative mix of browns and greens.
Composting produces a few organisms, particularly a mold called Aspergillus fumigatus (see picture above), which can cause a variety of mostly respiratory diseases grouped under the title Aspergillosis. These can be actual infections, usually in the lungs, or allergic reactions which cause asthma, and they range from troublesome to deadly.
We share the world with a wide range of Aspergillus fungi. But Aspergillosis almost always results from exposure to A. fumigatus, which is ubiquitous not only in compost heaps but in the atmosphere. Aspergillosis usually attacks people whose health is already compromised. Especially at risk are people who have asthma, those whose lungs are pitted or scarred by previous diseases such as tuberculosis, and those who have seriously compromised immune systems such as AIDS patients.
There’s no reason to think that making SAFE compost is out of reach, to read more
