Events

Soil, dust, and seasonal drivers

Legacy diffuse lead contamination in older inner-city soils remains an under‑recognised yet significant public health issue in many cities. While attention has historically focused on interior lead paint and drinking water, decades of leaded petrol emissions, exterior lead‑based paint, smelters, and battery recycling have resulted in widespread and persistent soil contamination. These legacy impacts continue to present exposure risks, particularly through the mobilisation of contaminated dust in older inner-city environments.

Traditional management approaches have often focused on site‑specific excavation and disposal at landfills, but diffuse contamination across older inner-city landscapes presents a more complex challenge. Increasing evidence points to environmental factors and human activity playing a critical role in how lead in soil dust is transported and how lead exposure occurs.

In this webinar, our speaker will explore:

• Historical sources and the legacy distribution of lead contamination in older inner-city environments
• Spatial patterns of soil lead contamination observed across cities worldwide
• Mechanisms by which contaminated soil and dust enter homes and indoor environments
• The relationship between soil contamination, airborne lead, and dust resuspension processes
• Seasonal patterns in children’s blood lead levels and their links to environmental conditions
• Limitations of traditional remediation approaches and the challenges of managing diffuse contamination

Emerging research highlights a shift towards an exposure‑based understanding of lead risk. In particular, the role of soil dust resuspension as a primary exposure pathway is gaining increasing recognition, with studies demonstrating how contaminated soils can become airborne under dry conditions and traffic turbulence, contributing to elevated atmospheric lead levels.

This evolving paradigm also emphasises the need for practical, scalable remediation strategies that reduce exposure without relying solely on high‑cost excavation and landfill disposal. Approaches such as soil capping, geotextile barriers, raised garden beds, and behavioural measures to reduce indoor tracking of soil demonstrate how exposure can be effectively minimised in situ.

This webinar will be particularly valuable for contaminated land consultants, environmental scientists, public health professionals, regulators, urban planners, local government officers, and researchers. A live Q&A will follow, and the session will be recorded.