Area-Wide Soil Contamination     |     Toolbox      |     Overview

Individual protection measures are simple, day-to-day things that individuals can do to limit or reduce exposure to soil contaminants.  Examples include hand washing, removing shoes before entering homes, using gloves while gardening, scrubbing fruits and vegetables before eating them, wet mopping to clean surfaces indoors, bathing pets, and washing toddler toys.

This toolbox contains four sets of example practices:

• Personal hygiene practices and other guidelines (for example, this Soil Safety Guidelines Poster) for how residents may reduce potential exposure, developed by Public Health – Seattle & King County
   

•  Actions that schools may use to reduce potential exposure of schoolchildren, developed by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
   

•  Worker protection guidelines, developed by the Snohomish Health District for the Everett smelter area
   

• Guidelines for gardening on soils that may contain elevated levels of arsenic and lead, developed by the Washington State University, Agricultural Extension

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This page was last updated 04/03/2006