Short Report: Addressing Community Air Traffic Concerns: A Pilot Study on Metals and Other Elements in Soil

A community residing along a flight path to Boston International Airport raised concerns about increased air traffic leading to increased soil pollutant deposition. These depositions may contain metals that are harmful to human health such as Pb, Zn, Cu, Fe, and Ni. To conduct a pedagogical pilot exposure assessment study of measuring elements in soil across areas of Milton, MA with varying air traffic on approach to Boston International Airport. As part of a Boston University School of Public Health graduate class in collaboration with a community organization, soil samples were collected from 17 different locations within and outside of the located flight path and analyzed for a suite of 30 elements using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. To evaluate the relationship between flight path and soil concentrations, samples were denoted as either within the flight path or outside the flight path. Differences between element concentrations within and outside the flight path were determined using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests and correlations were compared using spearman correlations. Median soil metal concentrations of selected metals most associated with air traffic within vs. outside flight path were respectively: Pb: 73 (49) ppm vs. 108 (75) ppm, Zn: 45 (26) ppm vs. 38 (46) ppm, Cu: 16 (11) ppm vs. 18 (8) ppm, Fe: 12,926 (2,425) ppm vs. 11,222 (2,429) ppm. Correlations between elements were higher and more positive within the flight path compared to outside the flight path which suggests a potential contribution from aircraft emission sources.