If you do regular gardening you should just do a test anyway. University of Delaware has a kit I do every other year and gives plenty of data plus a plan (in my case for helping with my grass, but there are options for gardens).
Thanks for the heads up about universities providing soil testing. Found out that my local agricultural university (Utah State University) offers this too.
The soil at my former house (built around 1920) on a major street in a large college town, next to a bus stop, tested for significantly elevated lead and PCBs. I believe the soil on the other side of the building tested much closer to normal for the area.
I would test if there is even the slightest concern of contamination. Eating a few garden veggies here and there likely won't have much of an impact on an adult. If you're regularly supplementing your meals and/or feeding children, you may want to be more cautious.
At my current house on a busier, older street, I wouldn't consider eating anything grown in the soil. Most near me seem to use raised beds or the community garden.
Yeah our house is like 1916 I think and close to a super busy road. I wouldn't have thought about the other side being safer though. Im definitely going to test both.
If your garden is in the front yard of a house located close to a busy street in an old neighborhood, maybe so (not sure of the risk). But in the U.S., cars manufactured after 1975 used unleaded gas, and leaded gas was no longer sold after 1995. So I would think that in any subdivision built after 1975, the risk of lead in the soil caused by car emissions is very low. If any kind of industrial facility was previously on your land, you should test for more than lead.
Don't forget about lead paint. Any wooden house of age has likely been painted every 10 to 20 years, the paint chips scraped off during the preparation work can be a significant source of lead, especially close to the building.
Probably not, unless you think your property has some contamination. If it's really bothering you the tests are cheap, or possibly free through an extension.
Completely disagree. Lead is very bad for people. See wikipedia for details: tetraethyl. The guy who made it Thomas Midgley Jr., even got lead poisoning.
Somebody is excited on farming more then excited on searching for lead. Not to mention you can spend your money and time on something more useful for your garden (but if all other problems has solved so why not to test for lead).
> Why give yourself one more thing to stress out about?
Because this is something we have some control over. Like trans-fats, no amount of lead is healthy (it can take the place of Zn and other elements in our bodies, and is especially harmful for young animals as they make foundational cells). If I want to grow food for my family (which includes a young human animal), I want the soil to be healthy enough (whatever we decide that is). If the soil that is present isn't healthy enough, I can import better soil (and contribute to it over time with compost from our kitchen).
I agree with you about the importance of not adding stressors, with the specification: don't add stress about things I can't control. For things we collectively have some control over I lobby my representatives, make comments on HN, and otherwise try to let it go.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 69.2 ms ] threadI would test if there is even the slightest concern of contamination. Eating a few garden veggies here and there likely won't have much of an impact on an adult. If you're regularly supplementing your meals and/or feeding children, you may want to be more cautious.
At my current house on a busier, older street, I wouldn't consider eating anything grown in the soil. Most near me seem to use raised beds or the community garden.
Because this is something we have some control over. Like trans-fats, no amount of lead is healthy (it can take the place of Zn and other elements in our bodies, and is especially harmful for young animals as they make foundational cells). If I want to grow food for my family (which includes a young human animal), I want the soil to be healthy enough (whatever we decide that is). If the soil that is present isn't healthy enough, I can import better soil (and contribute to it over time with compost from our kitchen).
I agree with you about the importance of not adding stressors, with the specification: don't add stress about things I can't control. For things we collectively have some control over I lobby my representatives, make comments on HN, and otherwise try to let it go.
> make comments on HN
This got a good laugh out of me. Good job.