Quantifying factors related to urban metal contamination in vegetable garden soils of the west and north of Melbourne, Australia.

Vegetable gardens in cities provide communities with fresh vegetables but also may contribute towards public exposure to metals present in soil from historical pollution. Contamination of some Melbourne garden soils with Pb (range 12.9-773 mg kg in soil) was found with some soils exceeding the Australian human health screening criteria for residential land use of 300 mg kg.