Polluted Soil

YOU DON'T SEE IT, BUT IT'S THERE MEMUCO PUBLIC BROADCAST SYSTEM Co Contamination results when hazardous substances are spilled or buried in the soil. It can also occur when pollutants settle on the soil, such as chemicals or industrial smokestack. Plants in contaminated soil absorb hazardous substances. Humans or animals ingest these plants may get sick, they can also inhale soil contaminants through dust that is present in the air or absorb these hazardous chemicals through their skin. The availability of clean water has come to be recognized as perhaps the most critical of all human security issues facing the world in the next quarter-century. New research finds that groundwater is dangerously threatened. Worldwide, 97 percent of the planet's liquid freshwater is stored in aquifers. PESTICIDES PETRO-CHEMICALS Sources Runoff from farms, back- yards, golf courses; landfill leaks. Cause Underground petroleum storage tanks. HEAVY METALS NITRATES CHLORINATED SOLVENTS Cause Cause Fertilizer runoff; manure from livestock opera- tions; septic systems. Effects Restricts amount of Effects Benzene and other petrochemicals can be cancer-causing even at low exposure. Cause Effluents from metals and Effects Mining waste and tailings; landfills; hazardous waste. Effects Nervous system and kidney damageB metabolic disruption. linked to reproductive and endocrine damage in wildlife; linked to nervous system damage and cancers. plastics degreasing; fabric cleaning, electronics and craft manufacture. Effects Reproductive disorders and some oxygen reaching brain, which can cause death in infants ("blue-baby syndrome"); digestive tract cancers. Čauses algal blooms, eutrophica- tion in surface waters. cancers. If some crops manage to grow, then these crops might have absorbed the toxic chemicals in the soil and might cause serious health problems in people consuming them. cas decrease soil fertility and in the soil yield. ARSENIC chemicals sip in to the soil FLUORIDE Cause Naturally occurring. Cause Naturally occurring; possibly exacer- bated by over- purmping aquifers and by phosphorus from fertilizers. Effects Dental problems; crippling spinal and bone damage. Effects Nervous system and liver damage skin cancers. SALTS Cause Seawater intrusion; de-icing salt for roads. Effects Freshwater unusable for drinking or irrigation. On almost every continent, many major aquifers are being drained faster than their natural rate of recharge. Groundwater depletion is most severe in parts of India, China, the United States, North Africa, and the Middle East. they accumulate in the ground where they find their way to the aquifers and rivers water from aquifers are used to take in to cities, irrigate plants and even make bottled water 97% 1.5b of the planet's liquid fresh- water is stored in aquifers. people worlwide rely on ground- water as a drinking source Maor sources European Environmental Agency, USGS, Brtich Geological Survey China File. China Dialogue, National Geographic, WWF, UN, All recycling facts, World Watch Institute