Quote:
Originally Posted by Griff
That is a concern I have with the urban farming movement. It is very attractive to reclaim city blocks for community gardens but you'd best isolate those gardens from the existing urban soils.
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The plants don't take up lead into their tissues. The real problem is bringing the lead in on your clothes and shoes and insufficient washing of the vegetables, especially root vegetables.
The easiest way to boost your lead levels is to inhale ultra fine particles especially after vacuuming w/o a HEPA filter.
But it is my suspicion (based on my lead remediation training) that, lethal levels aside, lead in the diet is primarily a low-income poor nutrition problem. There is 0 requirement for lead in the human diet, unlike chromium, selenium etc. which are also toxic in great enough quantities, but nevertheless required at micro levels.
What happens with lead is that it mimics calcium and iron to an extent. If your body is lacking in either of these and lead is present it will substitute the lead. This is a problem in developing kids because the lead will become part of the bones and will later become released when the body becomes stressed. Unlike iron, lead does not carry oxygen through the blood. Lead also causes birth defects and lowers sperm count.
While any exposure is bad for kids, what is really important is to be sure they are getting real nutrition and not potato chips and mountain dew.