Somerville Soil

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend said one of his professors once told him that her son developed "problems" due to constantly playing in the dirt when he was little, and that tests found there was high lead concentration in the soil of Somerville.

I have scoured the net and cannot find anything to support this. Is there any reason why I shouldn't eat something growing from the soil in our backyards?

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

You could have the soil tested.

Lead in soil in older residential neighborhoods commonly comes from two sources:

1) Lead paint flaking off of houses over the years.
2) In locations near the street, deposits from car exhausts, accumulated back when lead was a common additive in gasoline.

There was, of course, a lot of industry in Somerville over the years. I don't know to what extent that might have contributed to environmental lead levels.

I wouldn't eat anything that wasn't grown in a tub or box in soil that's known to be clean. ETA I especially wouldn't risk feeding crops grown in soil from an urban, residential neighborhood to a small child, since children are at the greatest risk from heavy-metal poisoning.

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

Theoretically speaking, if I were to make rosewater from roses grown in the ground, and used a steam-distilling procedure, the lead would be left behind, right?

[squirrelitude]

Right. And the concentration of lead that would wind up in the flowers would be absolutely miniscule.

[avjudge]

The research I've found on the web shows that there's not that much risk if you're growing fruit (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans etc). Lead just doesn't make it that far into the plant. But the closer to the ground, the more you have to worry - roots & tubers will take up more than stems which will have more than leaves.

I haven't had my soil tested and just grow tomatoes & beans & squash in it, then greens in containers. (Except tomato bacteria seem to have appeared in my soil, so I have to keep them out for 5 years, if I diagnosed the symptoms right.)

Also, the more organic material added to the soil, the less lead plants are supposed to take up - I'm not sure of the mechanism of this, just something I've read in a bunch of sources.

I should admit right here that I did grow Swiss chard in my soil 2 years ago in spite of my intention of keeping greens (and even more so, stems!) in pots, and ate it, so my thinking processes may be impaired. :-)

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

Yes, many of us in Somerville have soil with very high levels of lead in our soil. I suggest getting your soil tested by http://www.umass.edu/soiltest/ so you'll know whether you would be better off doing some container gardening.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

I found this (http://barkerhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/LeadInTheSoil.pdf) -- it seems to have some links that may be useful.

I have heard that lead levels can be especially elevated around current or former train tracks.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

You may also find this helpful: http://www.mass.gov/dep/toxics/leadcon1.htm

[antimony.livejournal.com]

There is a lot of lead in the soil in some parts of Somerville -- but not everywhere. Lead is much more dangerous to children than adults, but it's still not a good idea. UMass Amherst has an inexpensive and well-regarded soil test program that will check lead:

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

[aurewl.livejournal.com]

I had three soils samples from my yard near Willow and Morrison tested by UMass a few years ago with extracted lead results of 145, 326, and 367 ppm. The lab's estimations of total lead based on the results were 1109, 2179, and 2393 ppm, all of which were what they classified as in the "high range." The pamphlet they included about soil lead levels states that total lead levels above 1000 ppm are "legally hazardous" and "probably represent a hazardous waste situation." If concentrations are above 300 ppm, it says that young children and pregnant women should avoid soil contact. If I owned I would have the soil removed and clean soil hauled in (since I like gardening and care a lot about environmental health), but I rent.

I've done research on growing vegetables in lead-contaminated soil and the general consensus is that the lead does not get taken up into the fruit (e.g. tomatoes) but will be in greens (e.g. lettuce). Most of the issue is actually from soil particles sticking to the plants that you eat rather than being taken up into the plant.

It's true that if you or anyone you know has young kids in the area, the soil should probably be tested and you might want to keep them away from playing in the dirt. So sad.

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

This is incredibly helpful. I live in your neighborhood down the street near College. I have 3 raised beds (4'x8'), amongst buckets and other containers, which handle all my produce growth. I'm more specifically concerned about the rose bush in my back yard, actually. Last year someone posted on here requesting roses/rose petals to make rose jelly. I was hoping to do some cooking/baking with roses myself. So I'm curious whether the rose petals/hips would have drawn the lead up.

On another note, if I were to make rosewater using a steam-distilling procedure, the lead ought to be left behind, right?

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

My instinct is that steam distilling the rosewater would not get you lead contamination. But in general, if you want to know about your particular soil, while you can make guesses based on the neighborhood, but really - just get the soil tested. It turns out to be pretty simple, although I have to admit that I procrastinated for YEARS on actually going and digging up the samples.

We live a few blocks from the Medford line and the train tracks, over by Powderhouse, and I took samples from all the beds in the perimeter of the yard and our lead levels came back fine for growing edible crops without worrying about contamination.

We don't actually grow that much, but what finally got me to test the soil was a desire to eat our wild stinging nettle while I was pregnant and nursing - it's a great source of iron and supposed to boost milk production, but it's also good at picking up heavy metals in the soil and you're eating the greens.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

I have heard that acidic plants are more likely to have higher lead content, along with beans since they take the lead out of the soil, so I'd guess that roses would be pretty low down the list, particularly since you aren't using the fruit.

[jadelennox]

The UMass report will tell you what is safe to eat and what isn't. I had it done and was told to grow leafy things in raised beds but fruits were fine if not fed to babies or pregnant or nursing women, for example. Raised bed stuff will be fine if it's bought/composted soil but not if it's garden soil. The roses might be fine, but probably not for at risk folks.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

We had our yard over in North Cambridge tested and it did have medium levels of lead (such that the results stated "pregnant women and children should not handle the soil"). We decided to build a raised bed with a barrier and then used cow manure to fill it in. From what I recall from the consult we had with a person in the know, I definitely wouldn't eat any root vegetables grown in the soild. Berries are supposedly okay. Lead dust on the plants/fruit/veggie is a big concern. Also, of note, we ordered soil/compost mix from Cambridge Bark and Loam for our beds first, and after thinking about it, got copies of their lead tests, which also show medium levels (as high as our yard), so we demanded a refund (which they gave after some protest).

[cynickalone.livejournal.com]

Shoot, really? The soil I use in my raised beds is from Boston Bark. I wonder if I should test it.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i was pretty disappointed when we learned that. Call Boston Bark and ask them if they have their soil tested and if so have them send you the results. Cambridge Bark and Loam had theirs tested and told us it was low. When we asked for the results, we discovered they were medium. I think they get a lot of their compost material locally from leaf pick up, yard waste, etc, which all grows in the soil, so it makes sense that it might have some lead in it. Stupid lead!

[houlette.livejournal.com]

Hmm, we also just used Cambridge Bark and Loam for our raised beds. I guess we should test them.

Anybody have any suggestions for how we could get leaded dirt hauled away? Does it count as "hazardous material" -- ie subject to restrictions about how you dispose of it?

Also, I'm wondering where to get non-leaded soil for a garden. It seems impractical (not to mention expensive) to buy it by the (dozens of) bags!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I can't believe it! I can't remember now if they are who we used for the raised bed in my old place. Crazy.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I know! we thought we were being so pro-active, and it ended up just being a huge pain in the arse. I kind of wish we hadn't tested at all. (But of course, with two kids, we needed to test)... we also sodded the whole back yard, because a large portion was a dust field, and it's the dust and digging in it that can be a problem. We were told the best way to address it (since there is about 0 money for removing/remediating it these days) is to "encapsulate it" with lush greens. We're hoping the sod takes and we don't have to do this again in a few years. Ah, home ownership.

[medyani.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of other metals and contaminants that may be in your soil. One reason urban soils often have high levels of lead and other contaminants is because lead was something added to gasoline since the early 1920s (http://www.radford.edu/wkovarik/ethylwar/overview.html), and wasn't completely phased out until this century (http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead). ILead paint usage can also be a factor (http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG2543.html). If you "scoured the net" but you were looking for info only on Somerville, you probably didn't find anything because it is such a widespread problem.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

What is this "completely phased out" you speak of. Tetraethyl lead is still used in aviation fuel and some fuels for marine and farm equipment.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

"Lead was outlawed as an automotive gasoline additive in this country in 1986" is a prominent sentence in the linked article, so presumably gasoline for automobiles is the topic of interest; marine+farm equipment and aviation fuel probably has a much lower on 'urban soil' (the topic at hand) than gasoline does. :)

[xuth.livejournal.com]

oh, hey... links. I didn't see those, I blame reading LJ on by tablet and phone over the weekend.

[coffeekitty.livejournal.com]

there is also a small chance that mercury could be an issue, if you've the bad luck to have a yard that has had a broken thermometer/barometer/sphygmomanometer dumped in it.