Given the considerable quantities of biogenic matrices employed in agricultural applications, there is growing concern about the potential negative effects resulting from the presence of harmful contaminants. The project "SLURP - SLUdge Recovery in Agriculture: Environment and Health Protection" planned a multi-stage approach in which the application of a wide battery of bioassays was proposed as an effective tool to measure the direct interaction of matrices with the different components of the ecosystem, from the molecular to the whole organism level. The aim of the present study, which is a part of the "SLURP" project, was to characterise the toxicological and genotoxicological properties of water extracts from biogenic wastes using several assays based on plant, bacterial and human cells. The aqueous extracts of four sewage sludges, a liming material, two manure slurries of swine and bovine origin, a digestate from bovine manure and a compost were chemically characterised for inorganic ions and heavy metals. Then the extracts were analysed using tests on A.cepa, C.sativus, L.sativum, S.typhimurium and human hepatoma cell line (HepG2) to assess toxicity (seed germination, root elongation, proliferation), mutagenicity and genotoxicity (primary DNA damage, chromosomal aberrations). The extracts exhibited chemical heterogeneity. Ammonia nitrogen, Ca