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May 14, 2009

Brooklyn Ground Zero for Lead Soil Problems

brooklyn-garden-0509.jpgGardens of houses built before 1978 (when lead-based paint was banned) are likely to contain soil with excessive levels of lead, according to an article in today's New York Times, which means that most Brooklynites with access to a back yard have some work to do. Frank Meuschke, an artist living in a rented house in Brooklyn, had his soil tested at Brooklyn College for $12 and found that it contained nine times the normal amount of lead. The health implications go beyond whether it's safe to eat a tomato from your garden-- Gabriel Filippelli, a professor of earth science at Indiana University-Purdue University has shown a direct correlation between lead levels in people’s blood and how much lead is in the soil where they live. Approaches to dealing with the problem include replacing the soil altogether to putting down sod to mixing in compost and lime. What approaches have readers used?




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:14 AM | Comments (26)
Categories: Environmental, Gardening, Quality of Life

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Can anyone share the contact info for where Frank got his soil tested at Brooklyn College?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Schultz at May 14, 2009 11:33 AM

http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pub/departments/esac/1535.htm

My results from a couple of years ago were not as bad as I thought. I have been incorporating compost and lime and I want to retest to see if that made a difference. I still do not grow edibles directly in the gound though. I use containers instead for tomatoes, strawberries and herbs.

Posted by: Chaka at May 14, 2009 11:42 AM

Thanks Chaka.

Posted by: Schultz at May 14, 2009 11:56 AM

I use my backyard to bury bodies, not plant food.

Posted by: Xander Crews at May 14, 2009 12:08 PM

No one is supposed to be planting edibles in the ground of your gardens!?! You are supposed to put a raised bed and add your own soil. How common!

Posted by: Ljubitca at May 14, 2009 12:18 PM

Raised garden boxes for veggies and herbs. Anything non-edible goes straight in the soil.

Posted by: Ditmas at May 14, 2009 12:20 PM

UMASS does the testing for $9.00. And they have other options to choose from. We had our soil tested there and they were prompt by emailing the results.

http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/

Posted by: oldrte10 at May 14, 2009 12:23 PM

Til now my backyard has been used mostly to bury bodies (of dead pets).

Now that there are some edible things growing in a little patch (with compost mixed in to the soil), I'm wondering if I should do the Brooklyn College soil test too.

Posted by: Bklnite at May 14, 2009 12:26 PM

Wait a minute. Brooklyn's a big area. WHERE in brooklyn does this dude live? I mean, if you've got a plot in Gowanus, Red Hook, Williamsburg or Greenpoint, yeah, I'd be a little nervous eating out of that ground. Or even sitting on it. But there are other areas that have been agricultural and then residential since they were settled -- are they at the same risk of having toxic chemicals in their soil?

That doesnt preclude the necessity of a soil test WHEREVER you live in an urban environment, but it does strike me as odd that they don't mention how some areas are far higher risk than others.

Posted by: iz at May 14, 2009 12:27 PM

Overly alarmist IMO.

Consider the last couple of lines from the NYT article:

"'You can’t assume what you buy at the grocery store is any safer.' Peanuts anyone?"

Posted by: Bob Marvin at May 14, 2009 12:46 PM

My strategy has been to studiously ignore this. It's working so far.

Posted by: BklynJace at May 14, 2009 12:48 PM

iz, my guess is that there'd be way more research (and, as always, fear of potential liability) involved before they could making conclusions like that. as i understand it, the problem is that so many different things can contribute to lead in the soil that a "good" location isn't necessarily a good predictor of good soil. for example, residential areas near heavy-traffic streets can have very high lead levels, because of years of leaded-gas exhaust.

Posted by: i disagree at May 14, 2009 1:02 PM

I plant. I eat. I live.

I've got a lead pipe water service into the house too.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at May 14, 2009 1:06 PM

DIBS,

Lead pipe water service isn't a hazard because the inside of the main was quickly coated with mineral deposits. I had mine replaced with copper only after it sprung a leak in the street. That was about 15 years ago. My house is probably 20--25 years newer than yours; I'm afraid your water main is living on borrowed time :-(

Posted by: Bob Marvin at May 14, 2009 1:13 PM

now we have to have clean dirt. Oy! the things the idle rich will worry about.

Posted by: mcKenzie at May 14, 2009 2:04 PM

I had my soil tested with UMass about 8 years ago and it was the same story - elevated lead. They also told me that plants with fruits - tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. - do not leach lead into the fruit itself. UMass advised against planting and eating root vegetables and leafy vegetables as the lead becomes present in the food. I've eaten a lot of tomatoes since then and haven't had any probleasfgsdmkal;lk;mf;. IJOGjjzzzzzzzzzzz.
Bad joke.
But the more organic material, e.g., compost, you put into the soil the less likely lead is to leach into your food.
For what it's worth I've fed my kids the tomatoes and they've had no elevated lead in their blood according to their (semi-loony) pediatrician. Also, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden told me (in 2001) that gardening in Brooklyn is totally safe and that tests weren't even needed...

Posted by: gothamlawyer at May 14, 2009 2:25 PM

Sunflowers and mustard greens actually help leach the lead out of the soil so sometimes people recommend planting those first and then plant your tomatoes or whatever in the same area. We do raised beds for our greens, my backyard in sleepy, non-industrial Windsor Terrace, near the park, tested high for lead and cadmium. My kids play in the backyard without worry though...

Posted by: WTbound at May 14, 2009 2:39 PM

WTbound - I tried the Sunflowers but now the Cardinals in my garden can't spell.

Posted by: dittoburg at May 14, 2009 2:52 PM

i just had our backyard tested and the results are very high lead levels. i think it's likely because of coal ash, rather than lead paint.

at my last physical i had my lead levels tested (i was curious because i eat a lot of fish), but it was fine. and i've been gardening in my backyard for 3 years... so that makes me less worried. my understanding is that it doesn't get absorbed through the skin, but it's important to take precautions against ingesting or breathing dust.

we are doing raised beds for veggies this summer, and using garden fabric as a barrier.

Posted by: lc at May 14, 2009 3:13 PM

There have been a couple of postings about this in the Forum recently.

Good to know.


Posted by: mopar at May 14, 2009 3:41 PM

The guy in the article lives in Kensington, so not necessarily in an area known to have problems. But high levels could be due to coal ash which would be common everywhere that used coal for heat. I am not as wigged out about lead as others may be since I've probably been exposed to a lot of things I'm unaware of and I'm pretty darn healthy. The great gardening reality is that the areas around all of our houses used fill on site which has a great deal of clay in it. Clay is not that great for growing the vegees (and a lot of other things) anyway and top soil and compost would improve the vigor of anything you chose to grow. Raised beds would solve the need for good drainage that is a problem in clay soil. So, for the sake of getting the best vegetables in the smallest space, raised beds are the way to go no matter what your worries about soil may be.

Posted by: kensington gal at May 14, 2009 3:55 PM

I don't grow veggies just posies and mint for my juleps.
the very very very last thing that I would worry about is that my mint juleps will give me lead poisoning.
To get anything to grow back there the landscaper brought in tons of dirt and manure and mixed it all in with the local Brooklyn clay -which will not sustain any life forms other than lichens.

Posted by: sam at May 14, 2009 4:41 PM

Don't forget....this is the same ny times that brought you the three day scare over radiation emanating from granite counters last year.....aside from the areas of brooklyn where there is known contamination to the soil and the water table, do they intend to make a connection between lead paint in the houses and lead in the soil? that's interesting, because if that were to hold true, then the air and surfaces inside the houses should be hot also. not to say that lead isn't quite dangerous, but to what extent are the yards of all brooklyn contaminated, and did it come from the paint in the houses....

Posted by: raphael9 at May 14, 2009 4:53 PM

It's the New York Times, to them Brooklyn is some exotic unchartered territory like the badlands of Tasmania.
They have however heard, through reliable sources, that it is a land of dirty dirt.
The Times may know Paris, and London, and Jerusalem, but it doesn't know Brooklyn from Shinola.

Posted by: sam at May 14, 2009 5:04 PM

I guarantee that everyone who has soil under their feet has elevated lead, amongst other things, in this or most cities. The questions is -does it matter? Adults with lead poisoning spent a life working around the manufacture of paints or other leaded goods. Not gardening in the city. Ask the Italians in Williamsburgh growing grapes and zucchini how many of their friends and family got sick from lead poisoning.

I grow my vegetables in pots and planters. Wouldn't do otherwise in my small yard. My landlord seems like just the kind of guy to dump crap in there over the years. Plus, its right next to the house and street with its flaking old paint and car exhaust. Stuff like this, its coming from all over anyway, dust in the wind.

Whatever. I grow stuff anyway, wash the veggies. I do not think I will have lead poisoning. I simply wanted to know, plus I run the blog and wanted a local soil testing service -ESAC. Info, not alarmism.

But its good to test your soil for metals and nutrients, salts, PH, etc. Soil is the foundation of the garden after all.

Posted by: nycgarden at May 14, 2009 8:05 PM

Looking to interview someone who has been tested for lead soil in these Brooklyn neighborhoods and it turned out high. Also anyone concerned about the lead in the soil in these Brooklyn areas.

CC

Posted by: newser at May 21, 2009 1:17 PM

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