New Orleans Soil Poses Hazard. Study Finds Elevated Lead Levels.

[Thom Little]

Some New Orleans neighborhoods are covered in a layer of sediment containing lead above the concentration the federal government considers hazardous to human health, a new study has found.

The dirt poses the greatest hazard to small children who might play in it, said Steven M. Presley, a toxicologist at Texas Tech University, who led the soil survey team. The hazard could be reduced by keeping the dirt from becoming dry and airborne, by covering it with uncontaminated soil or, if necessary, by hauling it away.

"These levels are not astronomical. It's not like this is an insurmountable hazard. But we are saying that we did find levels that exceeded these thresholds for human health," Presley said yesterday after the study, which will appear in Environmental Science & Technology, was posted on the American Chemical Society's Web site.

The team sampled 14 sites, 12 of them inside the city limits. In two, lead was above the 400-parts-per-million concentration of the Environmental Protection Agency's "high-priority bright line screening" level, a hazardous designation set by the EPA. One was on Esplanade Avenue downtown (406 ppm) and the other was on the bank of the Industrial Canal (642 ppm).




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402236.html

[sonofliberty]

1. Everyone who is surprised raise your hand N/T

[CottonBear]

2. Other cities have pollution too. Is this an excuse not to rebuild NOLA?

We can clean up the city but will we rebuild it for the NOLA people?

[0007]

3. Bet the carpetbaggers have a workable solution to these

new studies.

Scare, fear and steal in the name of brotherhood. Isn't capitalism great?