East Point soilSHOP

Let’s screen your soil for lead!

In partnership with Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, East Point Environmental Collective (EPEC), and Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), we are offering free soil screening to the East Point residents who are interested in checking their soil lead levels, calling it the East Point SoilSHOP, as a part of the Community Science SoilSHOP (if you are interested in the broader GA SoilSHOP, please read more about it here). The East Point SoilSHOP is open to any East Point residents to bring up to TWO samples per person, so please collect your soil samples and drop them off at the Georgia EPD drop box located at 4244 International Parkway, Suite 104, Atlanta, GA, 30354-3906 between October 15 and November 15. DPH will screen your soil samples and Saikawa Lab at Emory and DPH will provide your results to you within 60 days by e-mail. By sampling your soil now, you’ll be ready to plant your garden in the spring. If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to reach out to atlsoilsafety@emory.edu. This is a virtual free soilSHOP event and you can read more about the program, as well as the limitations of the soil screening method here. Please also check out other resources available regarding health impacts of lead and other useful videos and website here.

Steps for soil screening

  1. Take Your Soil Samples: Watch this video to take soil samples from your backyard or anywhere you would like to screen lead levels. The trowel or shovel you use needs to be clean before you take a sample. Please make sure you mix the soil well after you collect 6 scoops and dry them thoroughly before you put them in a Ziploc bag!

2. Please clearly write your sample ID on your Ziploc bag using a Sharpie – write your name + Street + S1 for your first sample and S2 for your second sample (remember you can only provide UP TO TWO samples per person). So for example, if your name was Jane Doe living on Headland Dr, you will write JaneDoeHeadland-S1 for the first sample and JaneDoeHeadland-S2 for the second sample. Please put one or two Ziploc bags of your soil samples in a bigger bag that also has a piece of paper with your sample ID and your e-mail address on it. Close the bag securely so that we can match your soil samples with the soil information you provide to us in the next step.

3. Fill out the Form: Please fill out this online form to let us know where your samples come from and so we understand the exposure risk for you and your children. You only need to fill out one form per person but make sure you tell us about each of your samples, if you are providing two. If you prefer a paper form, feel free to print out this form and attach the form to your sample Ziploc bags with a stapler and put it in a bigger bag.

3. Drop Off Your Samples: We have the Georgia EPD drop box located for East Point residents at 4244 International Parkway, Suite 104, Atlanta, GA, 30354-3906. There will be a drop-box outside the air-lock room, where East Point residents can drop their samples off at any time, 7 days a week between October 15 and November 15.

We will do our best to send you the results back ASAP but please be patient as we are in the process of obtaining more equipment. Thank you for your patience and interest. Let’s work on making a healthy and safe environment for everyone!

soilSHOP team

Estimated response time: 30-60 days after receipt

To participate in East Point SoilSHOP is free but we ask that you only drop off TWO soil samples maximum per person. If you would like a more extensive soil analysis, we recommend contacting the University of Georgia Agricultural and Environmental Services Laboratories.