Nearly 1 in 4 US households could have soil that poses a lead hazard under the new EPA screening level

A nationwide analysis of 15,595 residential soil samples collected by citizen scientists found that nearly one-quarter of the samples exceeded the new federal screening level for lead of 200 parts per million.

Bar chart showing lead levels in soil from residential samples in 16 cities. Some had no samples with lead levels above the new EPA screening level of 200 parts per million, while in other cities up to 50% of samples exceeded that level.
Data set includes difference in sampling dates and protocols among cities. Sample sizes were larger for New Orleans, South Bend, Indianapolis and Chicago (n=1,187 to 5,434) than for other cities (n=53 to 523); larger sample sizes produce more confidence in assessed overall soil lead burdens.
Chart: The Conversation, CC BY-NDSource: Filippelli et al., 2024Get the dataEmbed Download imageCreated with Datawrapper