Saturday, May 16, 2009

Get the lead out before you garden

From the NY Times:

Harmful even at very low doses, lead is surprisingly prevalent and persistent in urban and suburban soil. Dust from lead-tainted soil is toxic to inhale, and food grown in it is hazardous to eat.

Health officials, soil scientists and environmental engineers worry that the increasing popularity of gardening, particularly the urban kind, will put more people at risk for lead poisoning if they don’t protect themselves.

8 comments:

Taxpayer said...

"Health officials, soil scientists and environmental engineers worry that the increasing popularity of gardening, particularly the urban kind, will put more people at risk for lead poisoning if they don’t protect themselves."

But it's super to force youngsters to inhale and ingest the same lead dust in schools. Especially in the "Little People's" neighborhoods!

Glendale Farms said...

Folks, do not let this dissuade you from growing nice food in your backyard. Gardening, along with composting, are very positive things and should be encouraged. Good for the soul, and good eats!

But thx for the tip, Crappy. True we should have soil tested, for a variety of reasons.

Kurt said...

There are labs where you can send your soil for testing before you start gardening.

linda said...

go green, but vent crap into our air to build school, so if i want to grow something i should have my soil tested, wow thanks bloomass. is'nt it a shame this is how we should think.. you never heard this kind of crap back in the day, things were simplier. lead in soil where the hell did it come from? all i can say is sad :(....

Anonymous said...

Although I'm no Bloomberg fan, Tetra-ethyl lead was a major component of gasoline for most of my life.

In fact, I had to buy gasoline additives for my first car, a 1974 Cutlass Supreme, because the new unleaded gases sold during the 1980s provided insufficient lubrication for the valves of the engine.

In addition to lead put into the air by burning gasoline, lead was a major component of paints and cosmetics where they were used as brightening agents.

In addition to lead, arsenic, antimony, chromium, mercury and other heavy metals are a persistent hazard found in the soils of former industrial areas such as Long Island City and Maspeth.

Buyer, beware. The most expensive apartments of today, may be the cancer hot spots of tommorrow.

Anonymous said...

What namby -pambys! Been growing veggies and herbs since i was 5.Back in the 60's we would go to the school yard and play javelin with the burned our flourescent bulbs.Took the asbestos isulation off the pipes in the basement barehanded and no respirator.Played with mercury when the themometers broke.Painted our model cars and planes with lead paint...........30 something years later spent the rest of september and all of october at ground zero.Im very healthy and take no meds!

Anonymous said...

You got off light. I was exposed to many of the same things growing up, but I would not look to intentionally expose myself.

Years ago we were all more ignorant. My non-smoking bartender father always stuck up for the rights of the patrons to smoke--tip income after all.

Guess what he died from? Emphysema.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your dad.yes we were ignorant back then.i have friends and co -workers who have become gravely ill from ground zero.We were all exposed to the same toxins.I gotta beleve it's genes and luck.