Striving for Safe Soil

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Quick Tips

Children between six months and six years old should be screened for lead poisoning once a year.
See How To Keep Your Child Lead-Free for more information on blood tests or talk to your pediatrician.
All homes built before 1978 should be professionally tested for lead paint.
This is especially important if paint is chipping or falling off walls, or a renovation is planned. Because leaded paint chips off over time, soil-lead levels are highest in the "drip zone" of a home – the narrow three-foot strip around the foundation. For more information on testing and removal, see Detecting and Removing Lead-Based Paint.
Restrict certain activities like gardening or playing in areas where soil tested positive for lead.
One safe option: build a sandbox for kids with a solid bottom and top cover, and fill with clean sand purchased from a hardware store.
Inside, keep soil-dust low by wet mopping and wash children’s hands and toys often.
(Although this can help to reduce blood lead levels, it isn’t a permanent solution.)
Feed kids healthy, low-fat meals.
More lead is absorbed on an empty stomach, as well as on a diet of high-fat foods. See 8 Simple Steps to the New Green Diet for some tips.
Find out if there's pressure treated wood around your home.
Likely places are decks, picnic tables, playground wood and garden barriers. See How to Avoid Arsenic Exposure from CCA-Treated Wood for more information.
Maintain a healthy lawn.
Grass — or even mulch — can act as a natural barrier between you and the contaminated soil.
Clean up accidental chemical spills and known contaminated soil right way.
Remove and dispose of it. If that’s not possible, the next-best solution is to cover it with a barrier like asphalt, mulch or grass.
Choose an exterminator who uses an IPM (Integrated Pest Management).
If it’s necessary to hire someone to de-bug your home, this approach focuses on the least-toxic method of control and prevention. For more information on IPM strategies for the home, see Pest Control Without Pesticides.
Keep children, pets and toys away from fields, orchards and gardens when using pesticides.
Find out who’s polluting your neighborhood.
Visit Environmental Defenses’s Scorecard or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Environmental Maps (emaps). These sites offer up specific information about Superfund sites, brownfields (abandoned or under-used industrial facilities), and toxic releases in your neighborhood, by zip code. For maps of cancer clusters combined with toxic chemical releases in your state, see Trust for America's Health.