Soil Pollution Causes
- Before listing causes, it's important that there be a proper, working definition of just what soil pollution is, and what it isn't. Generally, soil pollution is defined as the addition of materials, usually chemical in nature, which either don't belong in soil, or which are at much higher concentration levels than the soil would ever naturally contain. The addition of these materials must also be considered harmful to humans, or to other organisms. This definition is extremely broad, and leaves many practices, such as the use of pesticides or chemically enhanced fertilizer, open to interpretation.
- Two of the biggest causes of soil pollution are enhanced agricultural techniques and mishandling of dangerous chemicals by industry. Spraying pesticides or using chemical fertilizer may be no problem under perfect circumstances, but if those chemicals are washed into streams and rivers by rain, then they will spread to other areas and likely cause unintentional poisoning and damage. In the past waste materials from industry, particularly solutions containing petroleum, lead, cadmium and mercury, have been improperly disposed of. This led to the soil being polluted with oil and heavy metals. Today safety measures are in place to isolate or recycle these materials, and there are laws against industrial pollution.
- Of course, farms and industrial complexes aren't the only places where pollution happens. Dumping of hazardous waste by citizens is one cause, and another is nuclear fallout, which can render soil extremely dangerous. Regardless of how soil is contaminated though, the pollutants often leach into every part of an environment. As soil is consumed by worms and fed off of by plants, the compounds make their way into lower parts of the food chain. Those lower animals are eaten by higher animals, infecting all life in an ecosystem. Soil pollution can also pollute groundwater, lakes, streams and rivers. Worst of all though, as the soil breathes and plants absorb the pollution, the air will be filled with the toxic chemicals, which can then be spread to other ecosystems.
