Food from your vegetable garden could be toxic, top Australian study finds

A new study says an alarming percentage of veggie gardens are laced with a toxic metal. Find out if your suburb is on the list.

Nearly a third of Sydney’s household vegetable gardens produce food that contains dangerous levels of toxic lead, significant new research reveals.

The Australian study, published in the journal Environment International, was based on what is believed to be the largest data set of its type ever collected — samples from more than 3600 homes nationwide, including 2000 from NSW of which 1530 were from Sydney.

Headed by experts at Macquarie University, the study found 31 per cent of all vegetable gardens from Sydney “are likely to produce food exceeding Australian Government (lead) standards” compared to 19 per cent in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Key Sydney findings from the new VegeSafe study into lead in soil. Source: Environment International journal

“Tolerable risk for children exposed to garden soil was exceeded” in many parts of the metropolitan area, with inner city Sydney the worst, followed by Leichhardt then Marrickville, Ryde, Burwood and Strathfield.

Also above the safe level were Liverpool, Merrylands and Canada Bay.

Macquarie Uni environmental science professor Mark Taylor told The Daily Telegraph “we don’t want people to stop gardening. We want people to find workarounds.”

Professor Mark Taylor of Macquarie University. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

He suggested using raised garden beds containing fresh soil.

The choice of food grown also made a difference.

“The vegetables of most concern are things like herbs, lettuces, potatoes and carrots,” Prof Taylor said.

Some households were putting the contents of their vacuum on their vegetable patch, he said.

“That is a no-no.”

“The benefits of gardening far outweigh the risks,” Prof Taylor said. “But people need to be cognisant of the risks.”

A raised vege garden is safer. Picture: News Corp Australia

Some of the areas with very low amounts of lead were Blacktown, Baulkham Hills, Carlingford, Hornsby and Pennant Hills.

Concentrations were highest in aged, painted, traffic-congested homes. Timber houses also had soil with significantly higher amounts of the metal.

The results are part of a “citizen science” project called VegeSafe.

Forty per cent of participants who sent in samples for analysis have taken remedial action based on the feedback received, the researchers found.

“People are responding to the data,” Prof Taylor said. The project was funded by the public.

The areas of Melbourne with the highest lead levels included inner Melbourne, Brunswick and Coburg, Dandenong, Port Phillip and Stonnington East.

In Brisbane, Holland Park and Yeronga had elevated readings.