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Report sounds alarm on soil
pollution
How is soil contamination
affecting our food and putting our health at risk? Information gaps cloud
the answer
2 May 2018, Rome -
Soil pollution poses a worrisome threat to agricultural productivity, food
safety, and human health, but far too little is known about the scale and
severity of that threat, warns a new FAO report released today at the start
of a global symposium.
Industrialization, war, mining and the
intensification of agriculture have all left a legacy of soil contamination
across the planet, while the growth of cities has seen soil used as a sink
for ever greater amounts of municipal waste, says Soil Pollution: A Hidden
Reality.
"Soil pollution affects the food
we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the health of our
ecosystems," said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helen Semedo at
the start of the symposium. "The potential of soils to cope with
pollution is limited; the prevention of soil pollution should be a top
priority worldwide," she added.
But even though agricultural intensification,
industrial output, and urbanization continue at a rapid pace, no systematic
assessment of the status of soil pollution at global level has ever been
undertaken, FAO's new report notes.
Studies conducted so far have largely
been limited to developed economies, so there are massive information gaps
regarding the full nature and extent of the problem, according to FAO's
survey of existing scientific literature.
What little we do know is cause for
concern, the report adds.
For example, in Australia, some 80,000
sites are now estimated to suffer from soil contamination. China has
categorized 16 percent of all its soils — and 19 percent of its
agricultural soils — as polluted. There are approximately 3 million
potentially polluted sites in the European Economic Area and the West
Balkans. In the United States, 1,300 sites appear on that country's
Superfund National Priorities list of pollution hot spots.
Numbers like these help us understand
the types of dangers pollution poses to soils, but "do not reflect the
complete extent of soil pollution around the world, and highlight the
inadequacy of available information and the differences in registering
polluted sites across geographic regions," says Hidden Reality.
The report was released today at the start of a three
day-long symposium at FAO headquarters, during which experts
and policymakers will discuss the threat of soil pollution and begin
mapping out a more cohesive international response.
Danger to food and health
Soil pollution often cannot be visually
perceived or directly assessed, making it a hidden danger — with serious
consequences.
It impacts food security both by impairing
plant metabolism and thus reducing crop yields, as well as by making crops
unsafe for consumption. Pollutants also directly harm organisms that live
in soil and make it more fertile.
And of course soil contaminated with
dangerous elements (for example, arsenic, lead, and cadmium), organic
chemicals like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PAHs (polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons) or pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics or endocrine
disruptors pose serious risks to human health.
What causes soil pollution?
By far, most soil pollution is due to
human activities.
Industrial activities including mining,
smelting and manufacturing; domestic, livestock and municipal wastes;
pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers used in agriculture; petroleum-derived
products that are released into or break-down in the environment; fumes
generated by transportation — all contribute to the problem.
So-called "emerging
pollutants" are also a growing concern. These include pharmaceuticals,
endocrine disruptors, hormones and biological pollutants;
"e-waste" from old electronics; and the plastics that are
nowadays used in almost every human endeavour.
(Almost no science on the fate of
plastics in soils exists, observes Hidden Reality,
while most e-waste continues to be disposed of in landfills rather than
recycled.)
About the symposium
This week's event at FAO represents a
first step in identifying and plugging global information gaps and
advancing a more cohesive international response to the threats posed by
soil pollution. That includes establishing an agenda for action to promote
implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Management developed
by FAO and partners in 2016, as well as recent international commitments to better manage soil
pollution.
Facts and figures
FAO's report is a synthesis of existing
scientific research on soil pollution.* Noteworthy facts and figures from
that research include:
·
Production of chemicals grown rapidly
in recent decades and is projected to increase annually by 3.4 percent
until 2030. Non-OECD countries will be much greater contributors in the
future.
·
In 2015, the European chemical industry
produced 319 million tonnes of chemicals. Of these, 117 million tonnes (MT)
were deemed hazardous to the environment.
·
Global production of municipal solid
waste was around 1.3 billion tonnes per year in 2012; it is expected to
rise to 2.2 billion tonnes annually by 2025.
·
In many world regions, levels of
persistent organic pollutants in human milk are significantly above those
considered safe, with a higher incidence in India and in some European and
African countries.
·
Certain low- and middle-income
countries have notably increased their use of pesticides over the last
decade. Bangladesh, for example, did so by four times, Rwanda and Ethiopia
by over six times, and the Sudan by ten times.
·
Global manure production increased 66
percent between 1961 and 2016, from 73 to 124 MT. The volume of manure
applied to soils grew from 18 to 28 MT, and the amount of manure left on
pasture increased from 48 to 86 MT. Manure can contain high amounts of
heavy metals, pathogen organisms and antibiotics.
·
Soils near roads have high levels of
heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and other pollutants, posing a threat when food
production occurs in adjacent areas or grazing on roadside soils takes
place.
·
Approximately 110 million mines or
other unexploded pieces of ordnance are scattered across 64 countries on
all continents, remnants of wars that can have deadly consequences for
farmers and which can release heavy metals through weathering.
·
Almost all soil in the northern
hemisphere contains radionuclides in higher concentrations than the
background level — even in remote areas, as a result of fallout from
atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and radiological events like the
Chernobyl accident.
·
See page 91 of Hidden Reality for
a list of the sources FAO surveyed.
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