Filippelli, G.M.; Adamic, J.; Nichols, D.; Shukle, J.; Frix, E. Mapping the Urban Lead Exposome: A Detailed Analysis of Soil Metal Concentrations at the Household Scale Using Citizen Science. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2018, 15, 1531.
Filippelli, G.M.; Adamic, J.; Nichols, D.; Shukle, J.; Frix, E. Mapping the Urban Lead Exposome: A Detailed Analysis of Soil Metal Concentrations at the Household Scale Using Citizen Science. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1531.
Filippelli, G.M.; Adamic, J.; Nichols, D.; Shukle, J.; Frix, E. Mapping the Urban Lead Exposome: A Detailed Analysis of Soil Metal Concentrations at the Household Scale Using Citizen Science. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2018, 15, 1531.
Filippelli, G.M.; Adamic, J.; Nichols, D.; Shukle, J.; Frix, E. Mapping the Urban Lead Exposome: A Detailed Analysis of Soil Metal Concentrations at the Household Scale Using Citizen Science. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1531.
Abstract
An ambitious citizen-science effort in the city of Indianapolis (Indiana, USA) led to the collection and analysis of a large number of samples at the property scale, facilitating the analysis of differences in soil metal concentrations as a function of property location (i.e., dripline, yard, and street) and location within the city. This effort indicated that dripline soils had substantially higher values of lead and zinc than other soil locations on a given property, and this pattern was heightened in properties nearer the urban core. Soil lead values typically exceeded the levels deemed safe for children’s play areas in the US (<400 ppm), and almost always exceeded safe gardening guidelines (<200 ppm). As a whole, this study identified locations within properties, and cities, that exhibited the highest exposure risk to children, and also exhibited the power of citizen science to produce data at a spatial scale (i.e., within a property boundary) that is usually impossible to feasibly collect in a typical research study.
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.