Professor Leonardo Figueroa at La Universidad de Tarapacá in Arica opened his chemistry laboratory to the Our Soil team to assemble the lead and arsenic soil tests that we will use in the soil workshops this weekend. Here are some images of the Dan and Sebastián working in Leonardo’s laboratory taken by Caleb Yunis.

Abby and Dan arrived in Santiago de Chile early this morning where they will meet up with Sebastián and his students Daniel Valenzuela and Caleb Yunis. On Thursday, the workshops in Arica begin!

Rensselaer News published a press release about the soil workshops conducted with the Soil Justice Fellows in August. You can read the release here.

One way to prevent exposure to lead in soil is to maintain a physical barrier on top of the soil. Mulch is one material that can be used to build a barrier on top of soil, and can be good on walking paths in gardens, around the dripline of a building, or in a play area. The city of Troy offers free wood chips to its residents through Public Works.

The Soil Justice Fellows met in two groups again with the Our Soil team on Saturday, August 21, and Sunday, August 29, to complete the second soil workshop. Mónica had to fly back to Tucson after the 21st, and Saed returned to Troy on the 29th after a well earned vacation. In these sessions, Fellows returned to the results of their soil testing and the health implications.

The Soil Justice Fellows met in two groups with the Our Soil team on Saturday and Sunday this weekend (8/14 and 8/15) to complete the first soil workshop. Mónica flew in from Tucson and Saed drove up from New Paltz to join Abby, Kathy, and Dan in Troy. In the NATURE Lab yard, fellows used color-based tests to measure lead and arsenic in their soil samples.

Students in Abby’s class at RPI—“Food, Farms, and Famine”—used color-based lead tests today to screen soil in the Vasudha garden. The samples were taken last Monday, August 2, from the raised garden beds, around the compost, and along the base of the dormitory wall. Dan set the samples to dry and sieved them to remove particles larger than 2 mm in preparation for today.

Dan has been providing sampling kits to the Fellows over the past week and helping some in collecting their samples for the soil workshops on August 14th and 15th. Once Fellows collected their samples, they returned them to Dan so that he could set them to dry before sieving them to remove stones and debris larger than 2 millimeters. The dried and sieved soils will be used in the testing at the workshops, and this preparation is important for the consistency of the testing.

Mónica was interviewed by McKenna Conners of The Sanctuary for Independent Media on WOOC 105.3 about the Our Soil project. Mónica discussed her role in the Our Soil project and how the team is working towards greater awareness and safety with soil contamination. You can listen to the radio interview here.

Abby, Kathy, Saed, Mónica, and Dan held a rehearsal in NATURE Lab to prepare for the upcoming soil workshops! We are getting closer!