Dan will depart for Mónica’s laboratory at the University of Arizona at the beginning of September, delayed by COVID-19 from the original schedule of July 2020. COVID-19 also thwarted the desire of the project team to conduct a preliminary participatory mapping workshop to identify several locations in and around Troy to take soil samples for use in the Ramírez-Andreotta laboratory in continuing to develop the Community Soil Study Toolkit created by Nuestros Suelos in Chile. In need of a backup plan, Dan took thirty-three soil samples alone from public spaces throughout and outside Troy, including parks, playgrounds, and sidewalk planters. These soils will be analyzed using laboratory techniques alongside the Community Soil Study Toolkit to assess the Toolkit’s ability in measuring lead, arsenic, and copper in soils. Additionally, the Ramírez-Andreotta laboratory has an archive of soils from past community-based research projects that will be incorporated into the Toolkit assessment.
Paper-bagged soil samples at two of the locations:
