Soil pollution - the influence on the environment and human life

Human appropriate development is dependant on the structure and composition of soil which provides them with the appropriate amount of high-calorie nutritional elements, vitamins and mineral substances essential to the proper functioning of an organism. With food we provide our organism with both favourable and unfavourable to the development elements.

Ecological effect of chemicalization - of course, concern not only people but the whole organic world (plants, animals). Let us recapitulate the reasons, the mechanism of influence and consequences of soil contamination.

• Accumulation of toxic substances in plants results in the contamination of all food chain links.
• As chemical substances move, they cause eutrophication of surface and ground water.
• Soil acidification caused by sulphur and nitrogen compounds which pollute the air and get into soil and water in the form of acid rain or dry fall, curbs the development of organisms, destroys flora.
• Soil is poisoned by heavy metals (nickel, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, lead) and then these metals accumulate in plant tissues, as a result in plant organisms irreversible changes take place, there is decrease in mass gain in plants. In people the excess of heavy metals may cause atherosclerosis and cancer.
• Soil contamination caused by mineral fertilizers due to using them in an incompetent way or excessively, may deteriorate the quality of crops, cause disappearance of the activity of soil microflora, have a negative influence on the processes of nitrification and processes of atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Excessive amount of potassium (K+) in plants which grow on overmanured soil causes dangerous diseases in animals (e.g. pasture tetany ). An excessive amount of calcium in soil may cause leaf chlorosis, disturb protein and carbohydrate metabolism. Nitric fertilizers are also dangerous. The excess of nitrogen absorbed by plants is accumulated in tissues in the form of nitrates. Too high nitrate content in plants is harmful to people and animals. In animals the excess of nitrates leads to the increase in miscarriages, decrease in milking capacity, infertility, slow growth. In people it causes numerous, sometimes serious diseases (e.g. hypoxia - particularly hazardous to children).
• Ovemanuring with liquid manure may cause disturbances of chemical and biological properties of soil, and soil and plant contamination by pathogenic bacteria. It may result in the increase in a incidence rate, in animals or even people, of such diseases as brucellosis, erysipeloid, foot and mouth disease, tuberculosis.
• Pesticide contamination caused by using them in an incompetent way may lead to bird and animal poisoning and numerous diseases in people. Pesticides get into human's and animal's organism through digestive track, airway and skin. They accumulate in tissues (especially in fat tissue), weaken the protective effect of skin, cause allergies, cancer, pathological changes in the nervous system and the cardiovascular system, they disturb biochemical processes, carbohydrate and protein changes, they deactivate many enzymes.