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GABRIEL FILIPPELLI  
Department of Earth Sci-
ences IUPUI 

Center for Urban Health, 
IUPUI

Environmental Resilience In-
stitute, Indiana University

REV. IVAN HICKS   
First Baptist Church North 
Indianapolis

GREG DRUSCHEL   
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

JASON M. KELLY   
IUPUI Arts and Humanities 
Institute and Department of 
History

JOHN SHUKLE   
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

SPENCER STROUT   
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

NATALIE NICHOLS   
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

DAWSON STROUD  
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

MEGAN OTTENWELLER  
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

MARISA LONGBRAKE  
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

LEAH WOOD  
IUPUI Department of Earth 
Sciences

BENJAMIN CLARK  
IUPUI Arts and Humanities 
Institute and American 
Studies Program 

KEVIN FRYLING  
Office of the Vice President 
for Communications and 
Marketing, Indiana Univer-
sity

Addressing Risks of Lead 
in Water and Soil 
Using citizen science and a unique partnership 
with faith organizations 

abstract
One of the most widespread 
environmental health hazards in 
the United States remains exposure 
to the harmful neurotoxin lead. So 
much lead remains in the urban 
environment that it is not unusual 
to find neighborhoods where more 
than 10% of children exhibit 
harmful levels of lead, compared to 
the national average of about 1%. 
To overcome this challenge, 
a partnership between IUPUI 
researchers and faith organizations 
in Indianapolis takes aim at the 
risk of household lead 
contamination by providing 
residents the tools they need to 
protect against it. The community-
driven science aspect of this project 
is intentional—not only will the 
individuals who participate benefit 
directly, but the resulting data will 
also play a role in keeping 
communities safer more broadly. 

One of the most widespread 
environmental health hazards in 
the United States remains exposure 
to the harmful neurotoxin lead. 
Although the U.S. decades ago 
outlawed the production of materials 
that contained lead, such as gasoline, 
paint, and solder, its dangerous 
legacy lingers in older cities and 
neighborhoods. The lead remains on 
old structures painted with lead-
based paints, and in the water pipes 
that comprise our aging drinking 
water infrastructure. But what many 
are not aware of is that a major 
repository of lead is soils and the dust 
generated from them. Why soils? It 
is because they captured a century 
of lead deposited from burning 
leaded gasoline, industrial sources, 
and degrading lead-based paint, 
and concentrated it in the upper few 
inches of soils where children play 
and vegetables grow. It is this lead-

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infused soil that generates dust on dry summer 
days.

So much lead remains in the urban environment 
that it is not unusual to find neighborhoods 
where more than 10% of children exhibit harmful 
levels of lead, compared to the national average 
of about 1%. If lead is present in a young child’s 
blood while their brain systems are forming, it 
permanently distorts the critical neurons that do 
all of the signaling and communications work 
in the brain. The result of this exposure is the 
stuff of a behavioral psychologist’s nightmares—
permanently lowered IQ, increased attention deficit 
disorders, poor short-term memory, and decreased 
risk-aversion. Incarceration rates for individuals 
exposed to lead in their youth are higher than 
individuals without high levels of lead in their 
bodies, a statistical correlation that is tied to the 
negative neurocognitive impacts of lead poisoning. 
Legacies of racism and segregation mean that lead 
exposure rates are significantly higher for lower 
income communities of color, creating economic 
and educational challenges for these communities 
that can last for generations.

To overcome this challenge, a partnership between 
IUPUI researchers and faith organizations in 
Indianapolis is taking aim at the risk of household 
lead contamination by providing residents the 
tools they need to protect against it. As a part of 
the Center for Urban Health at IUPUI's long-term 
effort to map lead levels across the city—and in 
collaboration with the IUPUI Arts & Humanities 
Institute’s research on the Anthropocene—are 
working with the Indianapolis Ministerium's 
Faith Lead Initiative to distribute lead test kits to 
residents on the near northwest side. With funding 
provided by the Indiana University Environmental 
Resilience Institute through the Prepared for 
Environmental Change Grand Challenge program, 
the kits provide participants with free, reliable 

lab results on potential lead exposure in their 
homes—information that is often out of reach due 
to barriers such as cost and lack of education on 
the risks of lead.

The tests' results will also contribute to anonymous 
public data on household lead levels across 
Indianapolis through the center's Map My 
Environment website. This is the first time the 
website will contain data on lead levels in water, 
along with the soil and dust being collected as 
part of this effort. There are regulations about the 
allowable amount of lead in water, but the truth 
is there's no safe level of lead. The concerns on 
this front are real, as evidenced in a 2020 report 
on childhood lead poisoning from the Indiana 
Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on 
Civil Rights. 

The project's focus on tap water is significant since 
lead contamination is most common in homes 
with aging infrastructure, such as lead pipes, which 
can lose the protective mineral layer that prevents 
heavy metals from leeching into drinking water. 
The challenge is we're not talking about a large 
amount of lead; it's relatively low concentrations. 
But once you get any lead in your body, the acids 
in your stomach dissolve it, and it gets in your 
bloodstream. And once it's in your blood, it's very 
hard to get out because it's stored in your bones.

It's relatively low concentrations. But 
once you get any lead in your body, the 
acids in your stomach dissolve it, and 
it gets in your bloodstream. And once 
it's in your blood, it's very hard to get 
out because it's stored in your bones.

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Fig. 1. Community members assemble the water lead test kits at First Baptist Church North Indianapolis. 
Photo credit: Liz Kaye, Indiana University

Indiana does not provide free home lead analysis 
until children test positive twice for elevated blood 
lead levels. Furthermore, the state's threshold for 
elevated blood lead levels—10 micrograms per 
deciliter—is twice the amount regarded as elevated 
under national guidelines provided by the U.S. 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, 
the truth remains there's no safe level of lead—
especially for infants and toddlers. 

Research has consistently shown that lead testing 
rates are significantly lower in communities of 
color, even as the poisoning rates are significantly 
higher. In response to these inequities, the center's 
testing efforts focus on homes in downtown 
Indianapolis between Kessler Boulevard and 
Meridian Street, from 16th to 38th streets. A 
second, larger phase of the project—open to 

residents across the state—is planned for later 
summer, 2021. This effort is supported by the 
Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana 
University.

In spring 2021, volunteers at First Baptist Church 
North Indianapolis assembled the first 200 lead 
test kits (Fig. 1) for distribution in cooperation with 
local organizations such as GroundWork Indy, the 
Kheprw Institute, the Flanner House and partner 
churches of the Indianapolis Ministerium. 

Another 200 kits will be distributed in Muncie, 
Indiana, in cooperation with Ball State University. 
The kits include bottles for sampling water and 
bags for sampling soil and dust, along with 
educational materials on lead protection (Fig. 2).

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The lead testing project spoke to church leaders' 
desire to provide leadership and programming 
to improve their members' health. The fact that 
participants could learn about their home's lead 
levels while keeping the home's location 

anonymous was also significant, as some members 
were hesitant to pursue professional lead testing 
due to concerns about government repercussions.

The collection effort builds upon previous work 
from the Center for Urban Health, which has 
offered free soil analysis since 2012 and free dust 
analysis since 2018. Over 2,500 soil and 600 dust 
samples have been analyzed since the start of these 
programs, with results returned to participants. 
The center had not been able offer free water 
testing until now because water collection requires 
special equipment compared to plastic baggies for 
dirt and soil.

Each kit includes five plastic water vials, a 
large bag to collect household dust, three small 
bags to collect soil samples, and informational 
material on lead in the home. These kits are 
returned to the laboratory at IUPUI where they 

undergo an array of analyses to determine the 
content of lead in water, soil, and dust (Figs. 3, 
4). A numbered sticker is used to protect the 
anonymity of participants, and the results are 
returned to the participants themselves, with 
recommendations on how to mitigate any hazards 
that are detected. In the case of lead, mitigation is 
pretty straightforward, so long at the source of the 
exposure (soil, dust, water) is identified.

The community-driven science aspect of this 
project is intentional—not only will the individuals 
who participate benefit directly, but the resulting 
data will also play a role in keeping communities 
safer more broadly. This type of partnership 
is designed to provide true agency to the 
participants—these communities have passion and 
commitment, and only lack science to take action 
to protect their children’s health, and indeed, the 
well-being of the community moving forward. 
Additionally, the results are valuable research tools 
themselves, having contributed to over a dozen 
peer-reviewed journal articles in scientific journals. 
Of course, most normal human beings who aren’t 
in the academic world don’t read scientific journals. 
That’s why our program is steadfastly committed to 
producing parallel informational products that are 
designed with and for the general public, and we 
recommend that other community-driven science 
programs do the same. Such reciprocity is vital for 
truly meaningful community partnerships.

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Fig. 2. The collection kits include bottles for samples 
and informational material on the risks of lead in homes. 
Photo credit: Liz Kaye, Indiana University

This type of partnership is 
designed to provide true 

agency to the participants—these 
communities have passion and com-

mitment, and only lack science to take 
action to protect their children’s health, 
and indeed, the well-being of the commu-
nity moving forward.



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Fig. 3. An IUPUI researcher tests a water sample for lead content in a lab on the IUPUI campus.  
Photo credit: Liz Kaye, Indiana University

Fig. 4. Laboratory instruments are used by scientists to quantify the amount of lead in the water samples from house-
holds Photo credit: Liz Kaye, Indiana University

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