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Why NYC’s toxic community gardens may give you cancer

Three times the acceptable level of lead and six times the federal safety threshold for arsenic were found lurking in a community garden in Brooklyn, according to disturbing new state data unearthed by The Post.

Experts warn that vegetables grown at the Sterling Community Group Garden in Crown Heights can be unhealthy — perhaps even deadly — yet the state Department of Health would not release its data until The Post filed a Freedom of Information Law request in March.

The numbers are startling. A lead sample of 1,251 parts per million — triple the federal guideline of 400 ppm — was detected in the Sterling Place patch, along with an arsenic sample of 93.23 ppm, well above the federal threshold of 16 ppm.

“This is insane,” said neuropsychologist Theodore Lidsky, a former state researcher who warned that exposure to lead — at much smaller levels than those found in city plots — can lead to a range of maladies including brain damage, seizures and death.

Local leaders at the Sterling garden said they were not warned of the dangers.

“They didn’t tell us to change the soil,” said Catherine Bryant, 70, who has lovingly tended to the garden for the past decade. She said most of the food — collard greens, cabbage, mustard greens, turnips — is given away for free to anyone who asks.

“That’s a good plot to avoid,” urged Dr. Paul Mushak, a toxicologist and human risk-assessment expert. “In the case of any cancer-causing agent, you really don’t want any sizable exposure.”

But gardeners seemed unaware of any hazard.

The worst soil sample was taken from the Bryant Hill Garden in The Bronx.J.C. RIce

“No one has ever gotten sick that we know of,” noted Annie Faulk, 66, who also tends the Sterling Garden patch.

The data come from a first-of-its-kind soil-contaminant study by scientists from the state Center for Environmental Health published in the journal Environmental Pollution earlier this year.

Scientists found lead levels above federal guidelines at 24 of 54 city gardens, or 44 percent of the total. And overall, they found toxic soil at 38 gardens — 70 percent of the total. But the study did not reveal the locations or names of the gardens, and officials were mum, prompting The Post’s March FOIL request.

The worst single soil sample was found in The Bronx at Bryant Hill Garden — where lead was detected at 1531 ppm, new documents revealed.

Gardeners can breathe in lead, which can also get on their clothes and be accidentally ingested by kids playing in the toxic dirt. It can also be sucked up by root vegetables and leafy greens.

The state DOH continues to work to “promote healthy gardening practices,” according to an agency spokeswoman.

“Urban garden soils can contain contaminants that may pose risks to human health, and the nature and extent of contamination in many areas are not well understood,” Marci Natale said.

City Parks Department spokesman Phil Abramson said gardens with “high levels of contaminants” received clean soil after the study.

But experts said federal guidelines for lead are way too high — making the Big Apple data even more troubling.

“The soil that’s in a good garden situation should be well below 40 ppm, said Dr. Howard Mielke, a soil-contamination expert at Tulane University’s medical school.

There are about 1,500 community gardens citywide.

Each toxic garden should come with a warning sign, health advocates demanded.

“This is nothing short of a crime,” said Tamara Rubin, founder of Lead Safe America. “If you poured arsenic or lead into a kid’s milk bottle . . . you’d go to jail. But NYC kids are likely being poisoned by the arsenic and lead in the soil.”