Last weekend I did further sampling of our backyard soil to determine how widespread the lead contamination is in our backyard. I bought an economical do-it-yourself lead testing kit from the Global Lead Advice and Support Service that allowed me to take eight further soil samples. They also sell kits of two tests for only $100 for those of you who may be interested in testing your own garden soil. We should get the results back in a week or so.
As I have mentioned previously, I’m keen to raise awareness regarding the risk of lead contamination in backyards. It concerns me that there are likely children that are unknowingly playing in lead contaminated backyards (not just in Newcastle). I am just so relieved that we are now aware of the lead in our backyard and can take measures to ensure our safety.
As part of raising awareness I contacted the local paper. The paper was interested and a quick phone conversation and photo shoot later an article will be appearing in tomorrow’s paper. I tried to convey a positive message about wanting to raise awareness of the potential risk and that it is relatively easy to deal with lead contamination once you know it is present. I don’t want to scare people away from growing their own vegetables and I don’t want to come across as an alarmist. But in reality, I have no power over what appears in the article. I’m having visions of some alarmist heading above a picture of Little Eco and me in our garden. The photographers instructions for me to look “pensive” and comments from the journalist along the lines of “I have no control over the heading that appears above my article and your photograph”; “trust me”, and “I tell people to try and look at the bigger picture – you are doing a good thing” just add to my concern. Oh well. Fingers crossed!
[Edited to add note: Well...story wasn’t in today’s paper. Not news worthy? Maybe next week? ]
