One in Four US Households Likely Exceed New Soil Lead Guidance Levels

Abstract

Lead exposure has blighted communities across the United States (and the globe), with much of the burden resting on lower income communities, and communities of color. On 17 January 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) lowered the recommended screening level of lead in residential soils from 400 to 200 parts per million. Our analysis of tens of thousands of citizen-science collected soil samples from cities and communities around the US indicates that nearly one quarter of households may contain soil lead that exceed the new screening level. Extrapolating across the nation, that equates to nearly 30 million households needing to mitigate potential soil lead hazards, at a potential total cost of 290 billion to $1.2 trillion. We do not think this type of mitigation is feasible at the massive scale required and we have instead focused on a more immediate, far cheaper strategy: capping current soils with clean soils and/or mulch. At a fraction of the cost and labor of disruptive conventional soil mitigation, it yields immediate and potentially life-changing benefits for those living in these environments.