Albeit slow and not without its challenges, lead (Pb) emissions and sources in the United States (U.S.) have decreased immensely over the past several decades. Despite the prevalence of childhood Pb poisoning throughout the 20th century, most U.S. children born in the last two decades are significantly better off than their predecessors in regards to Pb exposure. However, this is not equal across demographic groups and challenges remain. Modern atmospheric emissions of Pb in the U.S. are nearly negligible since the banning of leaded gasoline in vehicles and regulatory controls on Pb smelting plants and refineries. This is evident in the rapid decrease of atmospheric Pb concentrations across the U.S over the last four decades. One of the most significant remaining contributors to air Pb is aviation gasoline (avgas), which is minor compared to former Pb emissions. However, continual exposure risks to Pb exist in older homes and urban centers, where leaded paint and/or historically contaminated soils+dusts can still harm children. Thus, while effective in eliminating nearly all primary sources of Pb in the environment, the slow rate of U.S. Pb regulation has led to legacy, secondary sources of Pb in the environment. More proactive planning, communication, and research of commonly used emerging contaminants of concern that can persist in the environment long after their initial use (i.e., PFAS) should be prioritized so that the same mistakes are not made again.

Lead (Pb) is a neurotoxicant that particularly harms young children. Urban environments are often plagued with elevated Pb in soils and dusts, posing a health exposure risk from inhalation and ingestion of these contaminated media. Thus, a better understanding of where to prioritize risk screening and intervention is paramount from a public health perspective. We have synthesized a large national dataset of Pb concentrations in household dusts from across the United States (U.S.), part of a community science initiative called “DustSafe.” Using these results, we have developed a straightforward logistic regression model that correctly predicts whether Pb is elevated (> 80 ppm) or low (< 80 ppm) in household dusts 75% of the time. Additionally, our model estimated 18% false negatives for elevated Pb, displaying that there was a low probability of elevated Pb in homes being misclassified. Our model uses only variables of approximate housing age and whether there is peeling paint in the interior of the home, illustrating how a simple and successful Pb predictive model can be generated if researchers ask the right screening questions. Scanning electron microscopy supports a common presence of Pb paint in several dust samples with elevated bulk Pb concentrations, which explains the predictive power of housing age and peeling paint in the model. This model was also implemented into an interactive mobile app that aims to increase community-wide participation with Pb household screening. The app will hopefully provide greater awareness of Pb risks and a highly efficient way to begin mitigation.

Studies of element partitioning between suspended sediment and water with increased seawater mixing are sparse, particularly in Bangladesh. However, these studies are important for understanding elemental cycling, pollutant transport, and impacts on aquaculture and sensitive ecosystems in estuaries and tidal deltas such as the Sundarbans mangrove forest in Southwest Bangladesh. Thus, water samples collected within the upper 1m of the water column along a transect of well-mixed tidal channels in Southwest Bangladesh during the dry season were analyzed for dissolved and suspended sediment element concentrations and other geochemical parameters. While most elements in the suspended load were close to or depleted relative to upper continental crust (UCC), several trace elements such as Sb, As, Cd and Se were slightly enriched. Additionally, most trace elements in the dissolved load were well above world average riverine concentrations, particularly Se and As. Dissolved load Ba and Se displayed mostly conservative mixing trends with seawater. Barium was likely originally sourced from sediment desorption and groundwater exfiltration, while Se may have been anthropogenically sourced from the city of Khulna or farther upstream. Dissolved As did not display conservative mixing trends, and may ultimately be geogenic in origin, possibly from groundwater. Ni and Co show trends consistent with desorption from competitive seawater cation exchange along the transect, similar to a study in the nearby Hooghly Estuary in West Bengal. Collectively, our results show that combined anthropogenic and natural influences on trace element distributions in coastal environments are important to quantify for continual protection of natural areas and better understanding of trace element discharge to global oceans.

Road sediment is a pervasive environmental medium that acts as both source and sink for a variety of natural and anthropogenic particles and often is enriched in heavy metals. Road sediment is generally understudied in the United States (U.S.) relative to other environmental media and compared to countries such as China and the United Kingdom (U.K.). However, the U.S. is an ideal target for these studies due to the diverse climates and wealth of geo-chemical, socioeconomic, demographic, and health data. This review outlines the existing U.S. road sediment literature while also providing key international perspectives and context. Furthermore, the most comprehensive table of U.S. road sediment studies to date is presented, which includes elemental concentrations , sample size, size fraction, collection and analytical methods, as well as digestion procedure. Overall, there were observed differences in studies by sampling time period for elemental concentrations, but not necessarily by climate in the U.S. Other key concepts addressed in this road sediment review include the processes controlling its distribution, the variety of nomenclature used, an-thropogenic enrichment of heavy metals, electron microscopy, health risk assessments , remediation, and future directions of road sediment investigations. Going forward, it is recommended that studies with a higher geographic diversity are performed that consider smaller cities and rural areas. Furthermore, environmental justice must be a focus as community science studies of road sediment can elucidate pollution issues impacting areas of high need. Finally, this review calls for consistency in sampling, data reporting, and nomenclature to effectively expand work on understudied elements, particles, and background sediments.

Heavy metals are often prevalent in urban settings due to many possible legacy and modern pollution sources, and are essential to quantify because of the potential adverse health effects associated with them. Of particular importance is lead (Pb), because there is no safe level of exposure, and it especially harms children. Through our partnership with community scientists in the Marion County (Indiana, United States) area, we measured Pb and other heavy metal concentrations in various household media. Community scientists completed screening kits that were then analyzed in the laboratory via X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) to quantify heavy metal concentrations in dust, soil, and paint to determine potential hazards in individual homes. Early results point to renters being significantly more likely to contain higher concentrations of Pb, zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) in their soil versus homeowners, irrespective of soil sampling location at the home, and home age was significantly negatively correlated with Pb and Zn in soil and Pb in dust across all homes. Analysis of paired soil, dust, and paint samples revealed several important relationships such as significant positive correlations between indoor vacuum dust Pb, dust wipe Pb, and outdoor soil Pb. Our collective results point to rental status being an important determinant of possible legacy metal pollution exposure in Indianapolis, and housing age being reflective of both past and possibly current Zn and Pb pollution at the household scale in dust and soil. Thus, future environmental pollution work examining rental status versus home ownership, as well as other household data such as home condition and resident race/ethnicity, is imperative for better understanding environmental justice issues surrounding not just Pb, but other heavy metals in environmental media as well.

Heavy metal contamination in urban environments, particularly lead (Pb) pollution, is a health hazard both to humans and ecological systems. Despite wide recognition of urban metal pollution in many cities, there is still relatively limited research regarding heavy metal distribution and transport at the household-scale between soils and indoor dusts-the most important scale for actual human interaction and exposure. Thus, using community-scientistgenerated samples in Indianapolis, IN (United States), we applied bulk chemistry, Pb isotopes, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to illustrate how detailed analytical techniques can aid in interpretation of Pb pollution distribution at the household-scale. Our techniques provide definitive evidence for Pb paint sourcing in some homes, while others may be polluted with Pb from past industrial/vehicular sources. SEM revealed anthropogenic particles suggestive of Pb paint and the widespread occurrence of Fe-rich metal anthropogenic spherules across all homes, indicative of pollutant transport processes. The variability of Pb pollution at the household scale evident in just four homes is a testament to the heterogeneity and complexity of urban pollution. Future urban pollution research efforts would do well to utilize these more detailed analytical methods on community sourced samples to gain better insight into where the Pb came from and how it currently exists in the environment. However, these methods should be applied after large-scale pollution screening techniques such as portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF), with more detailed analytical techniques focused on areas where bulk chemistry alone cannot pinpoint dominant pollution mechanisms and where community scientists can also give important metadata to support geochemical interpretations.