Another Step Toward Environmental Justice
¡Plo-NO! Santa Ana moves forward with I-CLEAN study
Since at least the 1970s, Santa Ana community activists had voiced concern about lead contamination in their neighborhoods. But their pleas were largely ignored. Until finally, in 2018, a team of UC Irvine researchers and community leaders began working with grassroots volunteers to seriously address historically unsafe lead levels in the soil throughout Santa Ana. The results were astounding. While California considers any measurement over 80 parts per million as hazardous to health, some soil samples were found to have concentrations of 1,000 or 2,000 ppm. The areas most affected were low-income and predominantly Latino neighborhoods.
Did You Know?
Many people primarily associate unsafe lead exposure with lead-based paint. However, lead from gasoline is extremely problematic especially in high traffic areas. For decades, airborne lead particles were spewed from vehicle exhausts, distributed over wide swaths, settling in soil and dust. While California banned leaded gasoline in 1992 (and it was last used in the U.S. about a decade ago), lead doesn’t biodegrade, so it can still wreak havoc years later.
Keila Villegas, water justice director of Orange County Environmental Justice, uses an auger to take a soil sample from a residence in the Delhi neighborhood of Santa Ana.
"There could be a lot of older cities in the U.S. that may share some of the same lead exposure story as Santa Ana."
- Jun Wu, UC Irvine professor of environmental and occupational health
Unearthing Lead Contamination
Interpolated soil lead levels based on measurements from over 1,500 soil samples collected in 2018 across Santa Ana show that a substantial portion of the city (areas in yellow, orange and red) had soil lead levels exceeding California safety recommendations.
Unearthing Lead Contamination
Interpolated soil lead levels based on measurements from over 1,500 soil samples collected in 2018 across Santa Ana show that a substantial portion of the city (areas in yellow, orange and red) had soil lead levels exceeding California safety recommendations.
“This project is very much rooted in action. Public health is supposed to be the people’s health."
- Alana LeBrón, UC Irvine associate professor of health, society and behavior as well as Chicano/Latino studies
In 2022 and 2023, UC Irvine students partnered with the nonprofit Orange County Environmental Justice to create two videos about soil lead contamination in Santa Ana for the EPA’s Environmental Justice Video Competition for Students.
The UCI students included David Banuelas, Ashley Green, Alexis Guerra, Annika Hjelmstad, Ariane Jong-Levinger, Caroline Nguyen and Tim Schütz. The team won first place in both phases of the competition, receiving grant funding to continue its work on civic bioremediation in Santa Ana. Check out the videos.
The Work Continues
No Safe Level
Children are particularly susceptible to exposure since they can absorb lead more readily than can adults. And there is no safe level of lead in the blood of children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research suggests that even low-level exposure during pregnancy and early childhood could impact a child’s development.
I-CLEAN Study
¡Plo-NO! Santa Ana (the coalition of UC Irvine researchers, community leaders and grassroots leaders) has recently embarked on its next phase: I-CLEAN, a five-year study funded by a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, that will explore the connection between lead exposure and children’s school performance and behavior. I-CLEAN launched last summer and through the help of promotoras, Spanish-speaking local health volunteers, aims to enroll 700 Santa Ana children between the ages of 7 and 10.
Toward Health and Healing
Ultimately, the coalition will create a public health equity action plan to raise awareness of the health and academic implications of lead exposure and advise the community and officials on effective mitigation strategies for residents and the land. Already, groups are working on novel bioremediation efforts involving native plants and fungi that are thought to absorb lead.
For an in-depth account of the coalition’s multiyear efforts to clean up lead in Santa Ana, and learn more about the I-CLEAN study, read the full feature.
UC Irvine Magazine is produced by the Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs.
To contact the editor, email ucimagazine@uci.edu.