Urban Lead: Modeling Its Distribution and Effects on Children

Abstract EN

We model the transportation of lead from the atmosphere and from the surface of the soil simultaneously at the macroscale and mesoscale to study its health effects on children in Jersey City, NJ.

We conceptualize Jersey City as an open system where lead is continuously emitted from a local smelting plant and a local power plant, deposited onto the surface soil of playgrounds, and ingested by children.

The model is constructed using the diffusion-advection partial differential equation in three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension with an initial condition and boundary conditions.

The model is solved using the Crank-Nicolson numerical method at the macroscale to determine the deposition of lead from the smelting plant and the local power plant and at the mesoscale to refine the amount of lead deposition for the areas considered.

We then determine the health consequences for the average child using the bioaccessibility of lead from soil to children, the bioavailability of ingested lead to the circulatory system, and the biological half-life of lead isotopes in the blood.

The health effects on children from lead are directly proportional to the blood lead concentration.