Gardenroots: The Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona Garden Project

There is a growing need to accurately evaluate the toxicological risks to resident food gardeners neighboring contaminated environments. Gardenroots: The Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona Garden Project was designed to determine the uptake of arsenic and lead in commonly grown vegetables in Arizona and evaluate the possible health risks to the local population. The project comprised a greenhouse study and a citizen science program conducted with a community neighboring a national Superfund site. A comparative analysis was conducted between the concentrations of arsenic and lead found in the soils, irrigation water, edible tissues of crops from the greenhouse and residential gardens. Vegetable intake rates were calculated to determine how much could be safely consumed at these measured concentrations. The citizen science program will be discussed in terms of recruitment, training, informal science learning opportunities, sample collection, communication efforts, and potential participant educational outcomes.