TITLE:
Soil Contamination with Heavy Metals and Its Impact on Food Security in China
AUTHORS:
Zhongchen Hu, Jianwu Li, Hailong Wang, Zhengqian Ye, Xudong Wang, Yongfu Li, Dan Liu, Zhaoliang Song
KEYWORDS:
Soil, Heavy Metals, Food Security, China
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.7 No.5,
May
30,
2019
ABSTRACT:
With the rapid economic expansion, environmental
degradation has become increasingly sever during the past three decades. Soil
pollutions associated with toxic organic compounds and heavy metals have been
identified in China. The accumulation of heavy metals in soils and its impact
on food safety is of increasing concern. It has been reported that more than 20
million ha of land have been contaminated with heavy metals that can result in
the potential health risks to human beings and soil ecosystems. This can
potentially jeopardize the food security in China. Accumulation of heavy metals
in suburb and rural soils is closely related to
many anthropogenic activities, such as application of fertilizers and
pesticides, irrigation of wastewater, discharge of mining, improper disposal of metal containing wastes, land application
of animal manures, sewage sludge and coal combustion residues. Arable crops and vegetables in suburb and rural can take
up heavy metals from contaminated soils, which is one of the main pathways of
introducing heavy metals to human food chain. Events related to soil and
vegetable contamination, food safety and human health risks, e.g., rice and
vegetables with elevated concentrations of cadmium, are often reported in the
media in recent years. The Chinese government has recently developed a number
of new policies for prevention of soils from further soil contamination, and
remediation of contaminated soils. This presentation will provide a
comprehensive review on heavy metal pollution in soils and its impacts on food
security in China, and also summarize some
new technologies for remediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals.