Many cities have on-going projects to facilitate the redevelopment of vacant urban land.  Vacant land reuse opportunities include (1) urban agriculture or gardening, that improves the availability of healthy, fresh foods, will improve nutrition and health of residents and (2) creation of parks, playgrounds and other commons.   Agriculture activities or gardening in an urban environment can present challenges because of the possibility of soil contamination.  Lack of understanding about soil contamination continues to be a cause of concern to urban gardeners and associated community groups.  This session will focus on evaluating current state of science of potential direct (ingestion, inhalation, dermal) and indirect (food-chain transfer) human exposure pathways of inorganic and organic contaminants, speciation and bioavailability of soil contaminants, and reducing and assessing bioavailability of contaminants in urban soils.