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Hazardous Health Impacts of Soil Pollution
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Researchers review how soil contamination from heavy metals, xenobiotics, microplastics, and pathogens threatens human health through crop uptake, food-chain transfer, and groundwater infiltration, tracing the primary drivers to intensifying agricultural chemical use and expanding human activity.
Healthy soils are crucial in sustaining life in diverse ecosystems on Earth. It is the key component in building an economy by supporting the growth of various plant species for food, fibers, etc. Soil prevents flooding by storing water. It plays an important role in carbon sequestration and thus enhances climate resilience. Soil is called unhealthy or polluted when the concentration of substances becomes higher than the normal level, adversely impacting human and ecosystem health. Several substances like heavy metals, xenobiotics, microplastics, and pathogens have been detected in soil, making it unhealthy. Some of these contaminants are highly persistent and can reach groundwater, making it toxic for human consumption. Human health is greatly impacted by soil pollution; however, humans itself is the main driving force to pollute soil. Escalating human populations require expanding agricultural land to ensure food availability to every person. To meet this increasing global food demand, heavy use of insecticides and pesticides is observed to increase crop yield. However, these chemicals not only pollute the soil but also enter everyday human food and disrupt the functioning of various organs of the human body. Increased concentration of heavy metals in polluted soil is one of the significant concerns in the world today. These metals harm the crops, enter the food chain, and pose a serious threat to human health. The present chapter focuses on various properties of soil to sustain life, various forces that make soil polluted, and its impact on human life.
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