Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
An apple a day? Assessing gardeners' lead exposure in urban agriculture sites to improve the derivation of soil assessment criteria
Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Ellison Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Ellison Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Ellison Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Ellison Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Show others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: Environment International, ISSN 0160-4120, E-ISSN 1873-6750, Vol. 122, p. 130-141Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Globally, many of our urban agriculture sites (UAS) contain high levels of lead (Pb), a contaminant of toxicological concern to humans. To improve the derivation of soil assessment criteria at UAS, and avoid inappropriate closure of these valuable community spaces, we sampled nearly 280 paired soil and crop samples across 31 UAS gardens. This sampling was coupled with an exposure and food frequency questionnaire and participants blood Pb levels (BLL), (43 gardeners and 29 non-gardening neighbours). In 98% of the sampled soils, Pb concentrations were above the current UK soil guideline for UAS (80 mg/kg), however despite the high soil Pb (geometric mean: 324 mg/kg), and high soil bioaccessible Pb (geometric mean: 58.7%), all participants BLL were <4.1 μg/dL (range: 0.6–4.1 μg/dL). Indeed, there was no statistically significant difference between the BLL of the UAS gardeners and those of their non-gardening neighbours (p = 0.569).

Pb uptake, however, varied with crop type and our study highlights the suitability of certain crops for growing at UAS with elevated Pb (e.g. tubers, shrub and tree fruit), whilst limiting the consumption of others (selected root vegetables, such as rhubarb, beetroot, parsnips and carrots, with observed Pb concentrations > 0.1 mg/kg FW).

The importance of defining the exposure scenario of a specific sub-population (i.e. UAS gardeners) is highlighted. Our preferred models predict site specific assessment criteria (SSAC) of 722–1634 mg/kg. We found fruit and vegetable consumption rates by all participants, and not just the UAS gardeners, to be considerably higher than those currently used to derive the UK's category 4 screening levels (C4SLs). Furthermore, the soil to plant concentration factors (SPCFs) used to derive the UAS C4SL significantly over predict Pb uptake. Our study indicates it may be appropriate to develop a distinct exposure dataset for UAS. In particular we recommend the derivation of SPCFs that are reflective of urban soils, both in terms of the range of soil Pb concentrations typically observed, but also the sources (and hence human oral bioaccessibility and plant-availability) of this Pb.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2019. Vol. 122, p. 130-141
Keywords [en]
Urban soil, Urban agriculture sites, Lead, Human health risk assessment, Blood lead, Crop lead
National Category
Geochemistry
Research subject
Applied Geochemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-71687DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.054ISI: 000454356400011PubMedID: 30449630Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85056737546OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-71687DiVA, id: diva2:1264713
Note

Validerad;2019;Nivå 2;2019-01-25 (johcin) 

Available from: 2018-11-21 Created: 2018-11-21 Last updated: 2019-01-25Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Rodushkin, Ilia

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Rodushkin, Ilia
By organisation
Geosciences and Environmental Engineering
In the same journal
Environment International
Geochemistry

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 104 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf