An apple a day? Assessing gardeners' lead exposure in urban agriculture sites to improve the derivation of soil assessment criteria
Jane Entwistle, Patrick M. Amaibi, John R. Dean, Michael E. Deary, Daniel Medock, Jackie Morton, Ilia Rodushkin, Lindsay Bramwell
Environment International
Urban Farm DB summary
This study assessed gardeners' lead exposure in urban agriculture sites (UAS) to improve the derivation of soil assessment criteria. Researchers sampled nearly 280 paired soil and crop samples across 31 UAS gardens in the United Kingdom and measured blood lead levels (BLL) of 43 gardeners and 29 non-gardening neighbors. While 98% of sampled soils had lead concentrations above the current UK UAS soil guideline (80 mg/kg), all participants' BLL were below 0.1 mg/kg despite high soil lead. The study indicated that soil-to-plant concentration factors (SPCFs) used for UAS significantly over-predicted lead uptake.