Homes in Utica, Herkimer may have lead paint in backyard soil
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Many of Utica’s backyards are haunted by a legacy of the city’s prosperous past.
Lead paint, a symbol of wealth until it was banned in 1978, has spent decades peeling off the city’s old houses after they fell into disrepair in the hands of absentee landlords.
Throw in lead particles released in many decades of auto emissions from leaded gas and a lot of Utica’s dirt contains potentially toxic amounts of lead, said John Adams, program leader and lead risk assessor for the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County.
About 90 percent of the city’s housing stock has lead paint. Even if abatement work has been done, it could linger in the soil, said Caroline Williams, program manager for the Lead-Free Mohawk Valley Coalition.
“Lead, with a half life of over 10,000 years,” Adams said, “does not go away.”
And Utica is far from the only place with a potential problem. Anywhere with old buildings or where old buildings used to stand could have too much lead in the soil.
Lead in backyards poses the same danger as lead in homes — that kids will get dust and particles on their hands and end up ingesting them. That can happen when kids play in dirt; when pets roll in the dirt and track it inside the house; or when adults garden and bring lead-contaminated soil into the home on their shoes and clothing.
Gardening safety tips:How can you garden safely in a backyard contaminated by lead? Here’s what you should know.
And if small children ingest enough of lead, it can lead to developmental delays, learning problems and behavioral problems, potentially with lifelong consequences. Oneida County has one of the highest rates of childhood lead poisoning in the state and Herkimer’s rate is twice the state average.
And growing food in contaminated soil adds to the risk of lead exposure. The cuticle of root vegetables, such as beets or turnips, can grow around little bits of lead, Adams said.
But tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and greens can all pose a threat.
“Overall, the big risk with gardening in contaminated soil, it’s not necessarily what’s in the plant that you’re ingesting,” Adams said. “But it’s what’s on it.”
Even if a vegetable never touches the ground, it can pick up lead particles on its skin. A single raindrop on bare soil can splash soil up to three feet out and three or four feet high, potentially splattering lead particles onto tomatoes or whatever else is growing, Adams said.
More: Lead tainting Geneva’s soil kept hidden for 30 years
Pandemic fueled interest in urban gardening
Interest in urban gardening, whether in community settings or backyards, has sprouted in recent years, both from the influx of refugees accustomed to growing their own food and from a growing interest in whole foods and farm-to-table eating, both Adams and Williams said.
Gardening took off even faster during the pandemic when people had time to try new hobbies and worried about being able to buy food in stores, said Holly Wise, master gardener educator for the cooperative extension.
Calls to the extension’s horticultural line shot up last year and again this year, she said. And greenhouses ran out of vegetable plants early on last year, she said.
Back in the 1940s, Utica’s Cornhill neighborhood was known for its big victory gardens grown by Irish, German and Italian immigrants, Adams said. But the situation wasn’t as dangerous back then because houses were still well maintained and leaded gas had only been around for a few decades, he said.
And as the amount of lead in the soil increased over the years, the area’s trees grew, cutting off the sunlight, cutting down on vegetation and allowing dirt to show through.
“And the bare soil is really where the impact comes from,” Adams said.
More:Utica homeowners in need of lead pipe repairs go without water despite available funds
The pandemic didn’t just increase interest in gardening; it in many cases increased children’s exposure to lead. People used their stimulus checks to do home renovations, stirring up lead dust in homes where lead paint had been safely covered, Williams said.
“And the kids were in there 24/7,” she said, “because they weren’t going to school.”
The numbers aren’t in yet, but the rate of childhood lead poisoning is expected to go rise because of the pandemic, Williams said.
How can homeowners mitigate risk?
To address the issue of lead in soil, the Lead-Free Mohawk Valley Coalition held a free soil testing and education event in Kemble Park on Tuesday — with poor attendance because of a downpour — and plans to hold another in the spring.
Jamina Lilley, co-pastor of the Tabernacle of Deliverance in Christ in West Utica, stopped by Tuesday’s event to pick up soil collection containers. She wants to test her own soil and soil from neighbors’ yards where she’s seen people gardening and kids playing in the dirt, she said.
Lilley learned about lead in the soil a few years ago when she helped a former Oneida County Health Department worker plan a community garden, which opened this year on land loaned by a homeowner on Warren Street as the Rebuilding the Village Community Garden.
Children garden there, but in raised beds with donated soil brought in to protect them against lead, Lilley said. The garden produced enough healthy vegetables this year to feed the children’s families and to share with other families in the area, said Lilley, who is looking for more land to expand.
The risk of lead in the dirt was news to Lilley, she said. “I’m sure a lot of homeowners may not know.”
The good news is that there are ways for families to mitigate the risk of lead in their backyard so they can safely play, let their pets out and eat homegrown tomatoes. And in fact, eating produce from a backyard garden makes families healthier and even helps to protect against lead, Williams said.
That’s because lead is more easily absorbed in people with vitamin and mineral deficiencies, she said. So eating lots of fruit and vegetables, with all their nutrients, she said, actually helps to protect the body from lead.
Amy Roth is the health and education reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Amy Roth at [email protected].
https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2021/10/28/utica-herkimer-lead-paint-risk-backyard-soil-gardening/8554228002/
