The science of the total environment

https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/37676/cdc_37676_DS1.pdf

Toxicological Profile for Lead

Urban agriculture offers an alternative land use for integrating multiple functions in densely populated areas. While urban agriculture has historically been an important element of cities in many developing countries, recent concerns about economic and food security have resulted in a growing movement to produce food in cities of developed countries including the United States. In these regions, urban agriculture offers a new frontier for land use planners and landscape designers to become involved in the development and transformation of cities to support community farms, allotment gardens, rooftop gardening, edible landscaping, urban forests, and other productive features of the urban environment. Despite the growing interest in urban agriculture, urban planners and landscape designers are often ill-equipped to integrate food-systems thinking into future plans for cities. The challenge (and opportunity) is to design urban agriculture spaces to be multifunctional, matching the specific needs and preferences of local residents, while also protecting the environment. This paper provides a review of the literature on urban agriculture as it applies to land use planning in the United States. The background includes a brief historical perspective of urban agriculture around the world, as well as more recent examples in the United States. Land use applications are considered for multiple scales, from efforts that consider an entire city, to those that impact a single building or garden. Barriers and constraints to urban agriculture are discussed, followed by research opportunities and methodological approaches that might be used to address them. This work has implications for urban planners, landscape designers, and extension agents, as opportunities to integrate urban agriculture into the fabric of our cities expand.

/pdf/multifunctional-urban-agriculture-for-sustainable-land-use-54hr9g4mxi.pdf

Multifunctional Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Land Use Planning in the United States

Dietary exposure to heavy metals, namely cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu), has been identified as a risk to human health through the consumption of vegetable crops This study investigates the source and magnitude of heavy metal contamination in soil and vegetable samples at 46 sites across four vegetable growing regions in New South Wales, Australia The four regions Boolaroo, Port Kembla, Cowra and the Sydney Basin were a mix of commercial and residential vegetable growing areas The extent of metal contamination in soils sampled was greatest in regions located in the vicinity of smelters, such as in Boolaroo and Port Kembla Soil metal concentrations decreased with depth at these two sites, suggesting contamination due to anthropogenic activities Cadmium, Pb and Zn contamination was greatest in vegetables from Boolaroo, and Cu concentrations were greatest in vegetables sampled from Port Kembla At Boolaroo, nearly all the samples exceeded the Australian Food Standards maximum level (ML) (001 mg kg−1 fresh weight) of Cd and Pb in vegetables Over 63% of samples exceeded international food standard guidelines set by the Commission of the European Communities and the Codex Alimentarius Commission All vegetables sampled from Cowra, which is a relatively pristine site had Cd and Pb levels below the Australian and international food standards guideline values This study suggests that the Australian guideline values are more conservative in defining the ML for Cd and Pb in vegetable crops This investigation highlights the increased danger of growing vegetables in the vicinity of smelters

Heavy metals contamination in vegetables grown in urban and metal smelter contaminated sites in Australia

ObjectiveWe reviewed the sources of lead in the environments of U.S. children, contributions to children’s blood lead levels, source elimination and control efforts, and existing federal authoritie...

Lead exposures in U.S. Children, 2008: implications for prevention.

https://www.bridges4kids.org/lead/binnspaper2003.pdf

Mary E. Finster

Papers

Lead levels of edibles grown in contaminated residential soils: a field survey

Evaluation of landscape coverings to reduce soil lead hazards in urban residential yards: The Safer Yards Project.