The notation of a city incinerator on a 1937 map of Durham that hung in Daniel Richter’s lab was originally just a hint. Richter, a soils and forest ecology professor at Duke University, noticed that the waste-burning site had been at an intersection near what is now a city park, sparking concerns of potential contamination.
In 2021, Richter started working with Enikoe Bihari, a master’s student looking for field research opportunities, to test soil at three Durham parks in historically Black neighborhoods near other former incinerator sites.
The researchers found high levels of lead, a neurotoxin that can cause chronic illness and is particularly harmful to children’s physical and mental development…