 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Anna O. Orlova, PhD, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway Room 382, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-3864, mfarfel@jhsph.edu, Mark Farfel, ScD, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, Peter S.J. Lees, PhD, Department of Environmental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St. Room 6010, Baltimore, MD 21205, Rufus Chaney, Phd, Building 007, US Department of Agriculture, BARC-West, Beltsville, MD 20701, and Peter J. Ashley, DrPH, Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Room P3206, 451 7th St., SW, Washington, DC, DC 20410.
Children's exposure to Pb in exposed soil of residential yards is particularly acute in distressed urban areas in the U.S. with older lead-painted housing in poor condition. This study includes the first systematic examination of the effectiveness of an in situ remediation method of composted biosolids application to lead-contaminated soil for reducing soil lead hazards in residential yards in the urban environment. A composted Baltimore municipal biosolids rich in P and Fe and approved by US EPA for unlimited use in gardens, was applied to 9 sites with mean soil lead concentrations ranging from 800 ppm to 2034 ppm. Bioaccesible lead in soil from these sites ranged from 57% to 84% of total lead.
Compost application followed initial rototilling of the soil to the depth 20 cm. The compost was applied evenly across the site in a layer 8-10 cm thick, rototilled into the soil and the site was seeded with grass. The initial rototilling of soil prior to compost application resulted in little if any change in mean soil Pb concentration. The compost application was associated with 13% decrease of mean soil total Pb concentration and with 13% decrease of mean soil bioaccessible Pb concentration in comparison with baseline. Soil testing at 1-year follow-up showed further 21% reduction in mean soil total Pb concentration and 36% reduction in mean soil bioaccessible Pb concentration in comparison to baseline.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Lead, Community Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.