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About 15% of World's Cropland Polluted With Toxic Metals, Say Researchers 46

Posted by msmash from the bad-news dept.
About one sixth of global cropland is contaminated by toxic heavy metals, researchers have estimated, with as many as 1.4 billion people living in high-risk areas worldwide. From a report: Approximately 14 to 17% of cropland globally -- roughly 242m hectares -- is contaminated by at least one toxic metal such as arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel or lead, at levels that exceed agricultural and human health safety thresholds.

The analysis, which was conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and published in the journal Science, collected data from more than 1,000 regional studies across the globe, as well as using machine learning technology. Dr Liz Rylott, a senior lecturer in the department of biology at the University of York, who was not involved in the research, said: "These findings reveal the deeply worrying extent to which these natural poisons are polluting our soils, entering our food and water, and affecting our health and our environment. Often collectively called heavy metals, these elements cause a range of devastating health problems, including skin lesions, reduced nerve and organ functions, and cancers."

Toxic metal pollution in soil originates from both natural and human activity. Contaminated soil causes significant risks to ecosystems and human health as well as reducing crop yields, jeopardising water quality and food safety owing to bioaccumulation in farm animals. Toxic metal contamination can persist for decades once pollution has been introduced into soil.

About 15% of World's Cropland Polluted With Toxic Metals, Say Researchers More | Reply

About 15% of World's Cropland Polluted With Toxic Metals, Say Researchers

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  • Look on the bright side, 85 percent is not.
    • The problem is a rotten apple spoils the bunch. Some toxins are bad at any level. And lots of food that people consume is a mixture of ingredients due to being processed. Even if say eating raw spinach; eating a well balanced meal is important to health so there is a good chance you will come across one of these foods. Essentially that would be saying just keep 85 percent of the crops (which is even less after pests, droughts or even too much rain at the wrong time of the crop et cetera to wrap up failed cr

  • Clay shooting (Score:3)

    by FictionPimp ( 712802 ) on Saturday April 19, 2025 @07:29AM (#65316729) Homepage

    Iâ(TM)m a sporting clay shooter. Half the courses I shoot at have us shooting into farmland like corn or wheat. They require lead shot. Always thought that was weird.

  • That is, wait, 24'200 square meters...

    Somebod that does not sound accurate. Looks like somebody does not understand SI. Pathetic.

    • That is, wait, 24'200 square meters...

      Somebod that does not sound accurate. Looks like somebody does not understand SI. Pathetic.

      "242m hectares". 1000000 "in British English as m" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Cheers to making the most out of the long weekend and asking others to explain your made up quote.

      • Should he have checked with ChatGPT before posting?

        • Should he have checked with ChatGPT before posting?

          Should I post this or does it seem like the ramblings of a drunk "That is, wait, 24'200 square meters... Somebod that does not sound accurate. Looks like somebody does not understand SI. Pathetic."?

          It definitely has a bit of a scattered, uncertain tone, which could make it sound like the speaker is either confused or intoxicated. The pauses, the hesitation, and the slight misspelling all contribute to that effect.

          If your goal is to highlight someone's misunderstanding of SI units in a sharp or critical way, you might consider making the phrasing clearer or more direct. If you're going for a more dramatic or humorous tone, then it already has that unpredictable energy.

          What vibe are you aiming for—pointed critique or a playful jab?

          I think you're on to something.

  • This is not really news (Score:3)

    by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Saturday April 19, 2025 @08:34AM (#65316799)
    This has been known for a long time. Most of this contamination is naturally occurring. Most crop plants should also not absorb them from the soil in significant amounts, since they are also toxic to the plants. Yes, this can be a problem in certain areas where the contamination is high. Bangladesh comes to mind, where the ground water is heavily contaminated with arsenic. The worst contaminated areas should not be farmed, but they are generally in the subsistence farming parts of the world, so the locals have little choice, but to farm or starve.

    • Re:This is not really news (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RockDoctor ( 15477 ) on Saturday April 19, 2025 @09:39AM (#65316883) Journal
      As a geologist, I've got to query, if the materials are naturally occurring, in what sense is it "contamination"? There never was, nor could there possibly have been an "uncontaminated" soil made from those bedrocks and drift materials.

      Another important point is that if you're talking about land within a mile or several of a highway, in the last near-century, then it will have received aerial deposition of lead from traffic fumes. Which I agree is "contamination", but given the ubiquity (until 15~ years ago) of lead-dosed fuels I wonder about either their threshold levels (so "accepting" significant areas of traffic-contamination with lead) or where they're sampling their data from. In Europe or America - or a lot of Africa, or Asia, you'd find measurable lead contamination almost everywhere. Or are they counting extremely-low stock density grazing lands, which barely qualify as "agricultural".

      Quibbles aside, I'm surprised it's so low.

      If an area's bedrock runs to 10ppm Cr, and it's natural soil runs to 12ppm Cr, (implying 20% m/m loss of rock mass on weathering into soil) is that contamination?

      • Exactly. Toxic is also a matter of concentration. Too much selenium is toxic, too little causes deficiency diseases.
        • If nothing else, farm equipment has oil and bearings that contain a variety of toxic heavy metals. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
          • So we do without equipment, oil and bearings.

            And instead deal with the salmonella (and worse) gut flora of the animals pulling the ploughs. Once the population re-stabilises to around a billion (~1750 levels ; because industrialisation is also necessary to move mineral fertilizers from there to here).

            • You aren't thinking the right way. We could use the "excess" human population to pull the plows. Think of the jobs this would create!

        • Though some metals such as thallium and mercury are toxic in any amount

          • True, but they are very localized in nature. The only sources of them in agriculture would be human contamination. Thallium is unlikely to be an issue, but mercury is certainly a problem if handled improperly. Fortunately, organomercurial pesticides are now banned almost everywhere.

      • And some crops are naturally prone to accumulating naturally and artificially spread metals like rice with arsenic and cadmium.

  • contaminated by at least one toxic metal such as arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, lead,
    Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel.

    Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

  • Phytoextraction (Score:4, Interesting)

    by packrat0x ( 798359 ) on Saturday April 19, 2025 @09:51AM (#65316917)

    Tobacco is superb at absorbing metals from soil. The US has even developed a variant specifically for super-fund sites.

  • c'mon (Score:4, Informative)

    by kencurry ( 471519 ) on Saturday April 19, 2025 @11:13AM (#65317079)
    A Guardian story, doesn't report the analysis levels, methods, exposure limits for the metals, anything other than what's in the title. Slashdot admins you can do better.
  • Input is an interesting metric, but the only thing that truly matters is output. If you have toxic levels of lead in the soil, how much is getting in the crops? Some crops absorb a ton of toxins in the soil, some don't. Lettuce?...yeah, don't plant that in toxic soil. Fruit trees?...most studies have shown they don't absorb most soil toxins, so a field that is a no-go for broccoli or lettuce may be perfectly fine for apples. Also, a toxic concentration that would taint a strawberry may be perfectly fine

  • Heavy metals pollution is almost entirely localized to a very specific belt, going from Turkey through Iraq and Iran into Pakistan, India and terminating in China. There are a couple of other hot spots like certain mining areas in Africa, but other than that, it's not a problem.

    Rest of the world it's just the same old overfertilization they're trying to sell as "pollution" again. This is 1960s panic, 1980s panic and 2000s panic being recycled again. Nothing new at all.

    • Heavy metals pollution is almost entirely localized to a very specific belt, going from Turkey through Iraq and Iran into Pakistan, India and terminating in China. There are a couple of other hot spots like certain mining areas in Africa, but other than that, it's not a problem.

      Rest of the world it's just the same old overfertilization they're trying to sell as "pollution" again. This is 1960s panic, 1980s panic and 2000s panic being recycled again. Nothing new at all.

      I don't get it. I'm aware of over-fertilization as pollution but afaik that's nitrogen. Are you saying it also shows as metals (which sounds plausible)?

  • Salt the golf courses.

  • You mean people have been dumping toothpaste [slashdot.org]in farmers' fields?

  • Copper (Score:3)

    by Hoi Polloi ( 522990 ) on Saturday April 19, 2025 @07:24PM (#65317943) Journal

    Not surprised with copper since it is used as a fungicide

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