Soil pollution

Soil pollution



The concern over soil contamination stems primarily from health risks, from direct contact with the contaminated soil, vapors from the contaminants, and from secondary contamination of water supplies within and underlying the soilMapping of contaminated soil sites and the resulting cleanup are time consuming and expensive tasks, requiring extensive amounts of and kills.

Soil contamination (soil pollution) is caused by the presence of human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. This type of contamination typically arises from the rupture of application of percolation of contaminated surface water to subsurface strata, oil and fuel dumping, leaching of wastes from or direct discharge of industrial wastes to the soil. The most common chemicals involved are petroleum, pesticides, lead and other This occurrence of this phenomenon is correlated with the degree of industrialization and intensities of chemical usage.

The immense and sustained growth of the since the 1970s has exacted a price from the land in increased soil pollution. The believes it to be a threat to the environment, to food safety and to sustainable agriculture. According to a scientific sampling,150 million mi (100,000 square kilometers) of China’s cultivated land have been polluted, with contaminated water being used to irrigate a further 32.5 million mi (21,670 square kilometers) and another 2 million mi (1,300 square kilometers) covered or destroyed by solid waste. In total, the area accounts for one-tenth of China’s cultivatable land, and is mostly in economically developed areas. An estimated 12 million tonnes of grain are contaminated by heavy metals every year, causing direct losses of 20 billion yuan (US$2.57 billion

It is in and that the extent of contaminated land is most well known, with many of countries in these areas having a legal framework to identify and deal with this environmental problem; this however may well be just the tip of the iceberg with developing countries very likely to be the next generation of new soil contamination cases.