Lead-tainted urban gardens?

Growing up, lead paint wasn’t really a big concern as the South’s housing stock is, generally speaking, newer than New England’s. Indeed, of the five houses I lived in from birth to age 24, only one of them was constructed prior to 1978, when lead paint was banned.

When I moved north to Manchester, however, I discovered that finding a home or apartment where the seller/landlord was not legally required to provide me with a lead paint disclosure form was easier said than done.

But as I don’t have kids, am not in the habit of eating paint chips and have nice, new windows that do not rub against paint when opened or closed, I have’t been too worried about the dangers of lead paint, as serious as they are.

Until, that is, I read a recent article in the New York Times informing me that “lead is surprisingly prevalent and persistent in urban and suburban soil” and that “dust from lead-tainted soil is toxic to inhale, and food grown in it is hazardous to eat.”

As of late I’ve been intrigued by the potential collective environmental benefits of home gardening, with a particular interest in urban gardening in back yards, community gardens and the like. Unfortunately for me, my postage-stamp sized yard is not conducive to gardening, and Manchester’s community gardens are reported to have waiting lists a mile long.

Still, I have several friends here in the city who are able to grow their own vegetables. For their sake, and to satisfy my own curiosity, I asked Tim Soucy, the city’s Public Health Director, how concerned we should be regarding food grown in Manchester dirt. After all, lead poisoning cases are still relatively common here in the Queen City:

“The issue of urban gardens and lead is not a new one,” Soucy said, “and in fact to find cases of lead poisoning associated with eating vegetables grown in such a garden is very, very rare (italics mine). With that said, we would encourage families to be cautious when planting a garden in an urban lot and if they can to build it up.”

Soucy further noted that while the Health Department does include “evaluation of soil as part of childhood lead poisoning investigations (unfortunately after the fact), and part of our prevention message always covers children playing in soil…. we do not offer testing of soil as a matter of routine. This is one of those items that while correct, can detract from the true exposures such as lead dust in homes from deteriorating paint and lead in the soil in play areas.”

Comments

[Marie H]

My little one had elevated levels at her one and two year checkups. We definitely attribute that to her dirt eating habit (now mostly broken.)