Persistent lead exposure in urban communities: Environmental pathways, policy gaps, and community-engaged solutions

Despite substantial regulatory progress, lead exposure remains a persistent public health concern in many U.S. cities due to legacy contamination in drinking water infrastructure, residential soils, and indoor environments. Communities with histories of industrial activity and aging housing stock continue to experience disproportionate exposure burdens, often from multiple overlapping sources that are not easily mitigated through conventional guidance or single-pathway interventions. This dissertation employs a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework to examine residential lead exposure pathways and evaluate practical strategies to characterize and reduce exposure in two legacy-contaminated New Jersey communities.First, in response to the Newark drinking water crisis (2017–2019), an academic–community partnership distributed 500 tap water sampling kits to residents to assess the effectiveness of commonly recommended flushing practices. Sequential first-draw and flushed samples demonstrated that lead was detectable in all samples, with concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 685 µg/L. Flushing reduced lead levels in some homes but failed to consistently achieve concentrations below health-relevant thresholds, indicating that standard public health recommendations do not adequately protect all residents from lead in drinking water.Second, using a CBPR approach in East Trenton, New Jersey, this work investigated whether contaminated exterior soils contribute to indoor lead dust, including in homes without lead-based paint. The majority of residential soil samples exceeded EPA hazard thresholds, and interior dust lead loadings did not differ between homes with and without lead-based paint, particularly on floors. These findings indicate that tracked-in soil represents a significant and underrecognized pathway for indoor lead exposure.Third, high-precision lead isotope ratios, deterministic (ISOsource) and Bayesian (MixSIAR) mixing models, and concomitant metal analyses were applied to characterize lead sources in East Trenton homes. Isotopic overlap among soils, dusts, and historical source materials precluded definitive single-source attribution, instead demonstrating that residential lead dust reflects integrated contributions from multiple isotopically similar legacy sources. Concomitant metal ratios provided additional discrimination, reinforcing the conclusion that no single remediation strategy targeting one source is sufficient.Finally, a pilot intervention study evaluated low-cost, resident-deployable dust interception strategies (Modified Corsi–Rosenthal box fan units and passive entryway door mats) to assess their ability to capture lead-containing dust indoors. Both devices accumulated comparable lead loadings over 30-day deployments, with frequent exceedances of EPA dust hazard benchmarks, highlighting the ongoing infiltration of exterior lead into homes and the potential utility of simple interim controls while comprehensive remediation is pending.Collectively, this dissertation demonstrates that residential lead exposure in legacy-contaminated communities arises from interconnected environmental pathways that are not fully addressed by existing guidance or single-medium interventions. By integrating community science, environmental sampling, advanced source apportionment, and practical intervention testing, this work underscores the need for holistic lead mitigation strategies that address both indoor and outdoor reservoirs while centering community priorities and lived experience in exposure reduction efforts.