New research by the University of Sheffield suggests that current land contamination risk assessment models do not give consideration to the health benefits of allotment gardening, despite the potential of these benefits to more than fully compensate the risks associated with growing food on contaminated land. The paper highlights a general need for a new generation of risk assessment tools that also predict overall consequences for health to more effectively guide risk management in our increasingly risk-averse culture. 

This paper is a useful tool for anyone engaged with the assessment of land for contamination during, or prior to, its use for allotment gardening.

ARI would like to thank the authors for their kind permission to make their paper freely available via the ARI website.

The paper by Leake et al can be found in the ARI Resource Centre.