7. Broad-Based Education and Awareness-Building

The Task Force believes that in most cases decisions about responses to area-wide soil contamination should be made by the individuals who may be exposed to the contamination or, in the case of children, by parents or other caretakers. Broad-based education and awareness-building will give residents the information they need to make responsible choices about managing their potential exposure to arsenic and lead. These recommendations support and underlie the recommendations on responses in specific land-use scenarios discussed later in this report.

Recommendations

The Task Force has four recommendations with respect to broad-based education and awareness-building:

• The Agencies should work with and through local governments, particularly local health jurisdictions, to increase knowledge of area-wide soil contamination through a broad-based education and awareness-building campaign. The goal of broad-based education and awareness-building should be to provide individuals, organizations, and communities with the information and materials they need to make knowledgeable and responsible choices about responding to area-wide soil contamination.
  
• Education and awareness-building materials and activities should be carefully balanced to provide accurate information while at the same time avoiding creation of unnecessary concerns or other unintended consequences. To meet various needs and to target resources, a toolbox of information and materials is needed, and a step-wise approach to outreach should be taken.
  
• Education and awareness-building should focus on risks associated with exposure of children and of adults who have frequent contact with soil. The most important audiences for education and awareness-building are people and organizations that care for children, including parents, educators, health care providers and childcare providers, and gardeners and other adults who frequently work in soil.
  
• The Agencies should monitor and evaluate the success of education and awareness-building efforts.

The Task Force believes that broad-based education and awareness-building is an appropriate foundation recommendation for a number of reasons. First, this approach will give individuals the information necessary for them to make prudent and informed choices about the use of their property and what measures they might take to understand and respond to the potential for area-wide soil contamination. Second, an information-based approach creates the possibility for Ecology to use less intrusive methods for promoting protection of human health. Given the limited State resources that could be devoted in the short- and mid-term to more expensive, resource-intensive approaches to addressing area-wide soil contamination, the Task Force concluded that it may be more feasible for Ecology to focus now on promoting voluntary efforts by property owners. The Task Force believes that the effectiveness of the education programs and individual protection measures will be enhanced by the step-wise approach recommended, so that education programs combined with programs encouraging practice of individual protection measures and maintenance of good soil cover are likely to be more effective than either program would be on its own. Finally, the Task Force emphasizes that, as recognized by the Agencies in initiating this project, currently there is no systematic statewide effort to address area-wide soil contamination, the majority of potentially affected properties are not being addressed, and there is no comprehensive plan to address them. In this context, any approach that systematically encourages individuals to understand area-wide soil contamination problems and provides them with the support and information necessary to make responsible choices about limiting exposure to arsenic and lead in soil is an improvement over the current situation.

(top)

A "Toolbox" of Information is Needed
The Agencies should develop a toolbox of information and materials to help individuals (e.g., parents) and organizations (e.g., schools) understand the potential for arsenic and lead contamination at specific properties and identify actions they can use to reduce their potential for exposure to arsenic and lead. At a minimum, this toolbox should include the following:

• Maps showing where area-wide soil contamination is most likely to be found. The Task Force recommends a specific approach to mapping, discussed in detail in Section 5 of this report.
  
• Materials that provide context for the maps and describe the variability of the nature and extent of area-wide soil contamination, so that individuals outside of areas identified on maps are not given a false sense of assurance that they cannot encounter elevated levels of arsenic and lead in soil and individuals inside areas identified on maps are not given a false sense of concern.
  
• Materials, including flow charts and checklists that describe how residents can use easily observable features of a property and readily available factual information to evaluate whether elevated levels of arsenic and lead in soil are likely to be present and whether exposure to soil is likely (see Figure 2 and Table 2). This process is referred to as a "qualitative evaluation" and is discussed further in the child-use areas section of this report, which includes a specific qualitative evaluation checklist.
  
• Materials providing guidance on how to collect and analyze soil samples at typical types of properties (e.g., a residential yard) to determine if elevated levels of arsenic and lead in soil are present. Note that the Task Force does not assume or recommend that soil testing is necessary at each property potentially affected by area-wide soil contamination.
  
• Information on the health risks associated with exposure to low- to moderate-level arsenic and lead soil contamination, particularly the health risks associated with exposures of children and information on how parents can obtain blood lead level tests for their children.
  
• Materials, such as those developed by Public Health-Seattle & King County and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, that encourage good personal hygiene practices and other individual protection measures, such as frequent hand washing with soap and water to reduce exposure to arsenic and lead in soil.
  
• Materials, such as those developed by the Washington State University Cooperative Extension, that describe individual protection measures for gardening in soil that has elevated levels of arsenic and lead, such as thorough washing of vegetables to remove dirt particles before eating.
  
• Materials, such as those developed by the Snohomish Health District, that describe individual protection measures such as wearing gloves and not eating or drinking in contaminated areas for utility and other workers who may frequently come into contact with contaminated soil through their work.

• Materials describing the range of additional protection measures that might be taken to respond to area-wide soil contamination to complement use of individual protection measures, in particular materials that describe actions that can be taken to maintain good soil cover. This information should include guidance on how individuals or organizations may locate clean soil for use in gardens.
  

• 	What are Additional Protection Measures? Additional protection measures are actions that individuals or organizations can take to physically alter properties in a way that reduces the potential for people to come into contact with contaminated soil. Additional protection measures might include: > Contain contaminated soil under paved surfaces, structures, or in landscaping berms > Remove and replace small amounts of contaminated soil, especially in children's play areas and gardens. > Till or blend soils to reduce surface concentrations of arsenic and lead.

  Materials that identify organizations-such as local health jurisdictions, land-use planning offices, the National Lead Information Center, and regional offices of the Department of Ecology, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-and individuals that are available to answer questions and provide additional help in understanding and responding to area-wide soil contamination.

The Task Force has developed a toolbox on area-wide soil contamination for the Agencies to consider. This is attached as Appendix K.

(top)