Healthy Gardening Practices to Reduce Exposure to Lead-Contaminated Soil

This webpage provides healthy gardening practices for residents living in areas where soil may be contaminated with lead. By following these practices, residents can greatly reduce their exposure to lead that may be present in the soil.

Key Practice

One of the best ways to protect yourself from lead exposure while gardening is to use raised beds filled with clean soil.

Introduction

Exposure to lead can be dangerous, especially to children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding because they are more sensitive to the harmful effects of lead exposure.

With proper care, gardens in potentially contaminated yards can still be safe places to grow fruits and vegetables.

Gardening can even help protect against lead exposure. Eating fruits and vegetables and getting plenty of exercise are essential parts of a healthy lifestyle. Studies show that a child who has a nutritious diet absorbs less lead than a child who does not.

How You May be Exposed to Lead When Gardening

It’s important to be careful when working in the garden because working directly with soil that has lead in it can be harmful. You can be exposed to lead when gardening by:

Eating fruits and vegetables that absorbed lead from soil.
Eating fruits and vegetables that still have lead in soil on them.
Tracking soil inside the home on shoes, clothes, or tools.
Accidentally swallowing or breathing in contaminated dust or dirt while gardening.

The diagram shows ways people may be exposed to lead while gardening: Eating fruits and vegetables that absorbed lead from soil. Eating fruits and vegetables that still have lead in soil on them. Tracking soil inside the home on shoes, clothes, or tools. Accidentally swallowing or breathing in contaminated dust or dirt while gardening.

Get Your Soil Tested

Knowing how much lead is in your soil is a good place to start and can help you make informed choices about gardening. Soil can be tested for lead in several ways:

Some local health departments may offer home soil lead testing. Find your local health department.
Most laboratories associated with state university agricultural departments and agricultural extension offices offer soil testing.
Attend soilSHOP events where you can bring soil from your garden to be screened for contaminants, including lead.

Healthy Gardening Practices to Reduce Lead Exposure

Working in Your Garden

Wash your hands, toys, pacifiers, tools, and clothes after gardening.
Wear gloves.
Keep your children and pets out of the garden if levels of lead are unknown.
Store garden tools outside of living areas.
Take your shoes off at the door and use doormats.
Clean your floors regularly.

Preparing Your Garden

Apply mulch to reduce dust and prevent soil from getting onto crops.
Build raised beds and fill with clean soil on top of a visible barrier like garden fabric.
Use containers to grow plants.
Locate gardens away from potential sources of lead (like old painted buildings, and roads with heavy traffic).
Incorporate compost or manure from outside sources like garden centers.
Adjust soil pH to near neutral (pH 6.5 – 7.5) to minimize lead absorption into plants.
Add soil amendments where appropriate. Contact state university agricultural departments and agricultural extension offices for more information on the appropriate use of amendments.

Preparing Fruits & Vegetables

Discard outer leaves of leafy vegetables.
Wash fruits and vegetables.
Peel root crops like carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes.

Recommendations Based on the Amount of Lead in Your Soil

After you get your soil test results back, you can use the information below to help make safe decisions about gardening.

Most soil lead tests results identify the amount of lead as milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) or parts per million (ppm). Mg/kg and ppm are the same amount of lead in soil, just expressed using a different unit; 100 ppm is the same as 100 mg/kg.

200 - 400ppm: Modifications to Existing Soil Needed

Use good gardening practices described in the box above, AND:

Use raised beds of clean soil and organic matter like compost or manure.
Cover bare soil with ground cover or mulch.
Peel root vegetables before eating or cooking.

Plant root vegetables in raised beds.

Plant shallow root plants in raised beds with clean soil.

A tomato plant grown in soil with a slashed circle covering the plant to indicate not recommended.

Not recommended to grow deep root plants, even in raised beds. (Unless growing in a container.)

Over 400ppm: Do Not Use Existing Soil

Use good gardening practices described in the box above, AND:

Only plant shallow root plants in raised bed gardens with a minimum of 16 inches of clean soil on top of garden fabric, or grow food in containers.
Cover bare soil with ground cover or mulch or keep soil damp.
Add clean soil and organic matter like compost or manure annually to the raised beds or containers.

A radish grown in soil with a slashed circle covering the plant to indicate not recommended.

Not recommended to grow root vegetables. (Unless growing in a container.)

Plant shallow root plants in raised beds with clean soil.

Not recommended to grow deep root plants. (Unless growing in a container.)

Other Federal Resources

Lead in Soil: Learn where lead in soil comes from, how to protect yourself and what EPA is doing.
Soil, Gardening and Your Health: ATSDR provides resources for people who may be concerned about safe gardening in their home or community. This website links to information on lead and safe gardening to help answer questions.