CASE STUDY: A COMPARISON OF TWO LEAD CONTAMINATED CLEAN-UP SITES AND CHILDREN’S BLOOD LEAD LEVELS IN THE URBAN CENTER OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA (USA)

The fact remains that despite the reduction of lead (Pb) sources in the environment, low income, minority urban children continue to be at higher risk of having elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) compared to other children due to the persistence of Pb in soil from legacy Pb sources. Contaminated soil cleanup followed by new soil application is used as an effective tool for remediation of high soil-Pb, thereby eliminating one source of Pb-exposure for the children living in these areas. This study focuses on two neighborhoods both with former Superfund sites and located in the urban center of Marion County, Indianapolis, Indiana to compare spatial soil-Pb distribution and BLLs for children ages 0-5 living in the two separate areas. The Westside Cooperative Organization (WESCO) located on the near West and Martindale-Brightwood (MB) Community located on the near Northeast side of Marion County, Indianapolis, Indiana both have former Pb processing plants located within their communities (Avanti in WESCO and National Lead in MB) and both have had the unfortunate distinction of requiring Superfund cleanup. Additionally, both neighborhoods have similar demographics characteristics in that both the majority of the residents in these areas are minority, low income, with pre-1970 housing. The WESCO cleanup occurred in early 1990’s while the MB cleanup occurred in 2007. Soil samples collected around both cleanup sites areas indicate that soil contamination around these Pb processing facilities still exists with areas around the Avanti site exhibiting soil-Pb values as high as 8,119 ppm and around the National Lead site 8,775 ppm. BLLs for children ages 0-5 years for the 1999-2008 were collected from Regenstrief Medical Records System (RMRS). Previous research revealed that variation in soil-Pb and BLLs on the community level is high in the years following the cleanup in the WESCO community with race being the biggest predictor of EBLLs. This research aims to determine if the same relationship exists in MB one year after cleanup.