About us
The Saikawa lab at Emory University is partnering with Historic Westside Gardens (HWG), whose members and staff live in the community, to test a variety of active and potential growing spaces for heavy metals and metalloids, such as lead, zinc, and cadmium. Our work has led to the finding of slag in the Westside neighborhood, which is now a Superfund site. We are also working to determine safe and inexpensive plants to grow to remediate, or remove, the metals from the soil. This project was funded by the Emory HERCULES Center, which works to understand lifetime exposures and their health impacts. Other partners include the Georgia Department of Public Health, and Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit.
Bioavailability is the amount of a substance (like heavy metals) that gets into the bloodstream after ingesting it. In other words, it is the percentage that could actually cause harm.
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We measure bioavailability in the lab by putting the soil samples in a fake stomach and intestine, then measure the concentration of heavy metals. This gives us a much better estimate of the potential health effects than by just measuring the soil alone.
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Bioavailability is the amount of heavy metals that gets into the bloodstream after ingesting soil.
