Agricultural Soil Contamination by Heavy Metals in Slovakia (original) (raw)

Worsened condition of living environment with a diverse degree of devastation in individual regions contributes negatively to a state of health of population and to a general ecosystem quality. Land presents a crucial natural resource and at the same time, an economic and eco-social potential of a country. Soil pollution is one of the major environmental problems. The presence of contaminants in soil environment has a considerable impact on land resources and can result in high values of exposure for people living in the vicinity of a contaminated site. Therefore, the evaluation of hazardous elements of soil pollution is one of the most important tools for overall assessment of the contaminated area. In addition to the properties and nature of land, also an actual attitude and approach of society to the problems of land protection influence significantly overall condition and development of land. For a remediation determination, additional information about utilisation and protection of land, a type and scope of agricultural land contamination is needed in connection to a spatial layout. It is possible to achieve a reduction of transport of pollutants into a food chain and crops by application of remediation methods for decontamination of specific pollutants from lands exposed to an anthropogenic pollution.