A report in the NYTimes today [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14lead.html]discusses the dangerous levels of lead in urban and suburban soil[/url], and details the case of a Manhattan gardener who discovered through soil testing that it contained 90 times the amount of lead expected to occur naturally. What a nightmare.
Have you had your soil tested?Harmful even at very low doses, lead is surprisingly prevalent and persistent in urban and suburban soil. Dust from lead-tainted soil is toxic to inhale, and food grown in it is hazardous to eat.
...Health officials, soil scientists and environmental engineers worry that the increasing popularity of gardening, particularly the urban kind, will put more people at risk for lead poisoning if they don't protect themselves.
...hazardous amounts of lead have been documented in backyard and community gardens in New York as well as in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Washington
The article goes on to suggest solutions such has planting certain crops that leach the lead from the soil, but must be disposed of as hazardous waste, as well as increasing the Ph level which causes the soil to bind with the lead.
