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This invisible ailment manifests itself when the concentration of pollutants on the surface reaches such a high level that it harms land biodiversity and endangers human health, particularly through food. Stock breeding and intensive farming use chemicals, pesticides, and fertilisers, which pollute the land, just as heavy metals and other natural and man-made chemical substances do.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, soil pollution is a global threat that is especially severe in regions such as Europe, Eurasia, Asia, and North Africa (FAO). The FAO also confirms that one-third of the world’s soil is already degraded, either severely or moderately. Furthermore, recovery is so slow that it would take years.
Xenobiotics
Xenobiotics are chemicals to which an organism is exposed that are not intrinsic to the organism’s normal metabolism. Many xenobiotics would reach toxic concentrations if they did not undergo metabolism. Most metabolic activity within the cell necessitates the presence of energy, cofactors, and enzymes. There are three types of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes: phase I, phase II, and transporter enzymes.
Lipophilic xenobiotics are frequently metabolised first by phase I enzymes, which serve to make xenobiotics more polar and to provide sites for conjugation reactions. Phase II enzymes are conjugating enzymes that can interact with xenobiotics directly but are more commonly found interacting with metabolites produced by phase I enzymes. These more polar metabolites are eliminated via both passive and active transport. The majority of xenobiotics are eliminated via multiple enzymes and pathways.The interaction of chemical concentrations, enzyme affinity and quantity, and cofactor availability frequently determines which metabolic reactions predominate in a given individual.
Examples of soil pollution
Soil or Land pollution is the degradation of the Earth’s land surface caused by poor agricultural practices, mineral exploitation, industrial waste dumping, and indiscriminate urban waste disposal. It includes both visible waste and litter, as well as soil pollution.
Soil pollution is caused primarily by chemicals found in herbicides (weed killers) and pesticides (poisons which kill insects and other invertebrate pests). Litter is defined as waste material dumped in public places such as streets, parks, picnic areas, bus stops, and shopping malls.
The soil contaminated by leaded gasoline fallout and lead seepage from hazardous waste sites. Lead poisoning is common in children, especially in older housing units and inner-city dwellings where children may consume lead-contaminated paint chips. Lead has a negative impact on the reproductive and nervous systems when it enters the human body in large quantities.
Heavy metals
Any metallic chemical element with a relatively high density that is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations is referred to as a heavy metal. Mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), thallium (Tl), and lead are examples of heavy metals (Pb).
Heavy metals are naturally occurring elements in the Earth’s crust. They cannot be destroyed or degraded. To a lesser extent, they enter our bodies through food, drinking water, and the air we breathe. Some heavy metals ( copper, selenium, zinc) are required as trace elements to keep the human body’s metabolism running. At higher concentrations, however, they can cause poisoning. Heavy metal poisoning could occur as a result of drinking-water contamination (lead pipes), high ambient air concentrations near emission sources, or food chain intake.
Heavy metals are hazardous because they bioaccumulate. Bioaccumulation is defined as an increase in the concentration of a chemical in a biological organism over time in comparison to the concentration of the chemical in the environment. When compounds are taken up and stored faster than they are broken down (metabolised) or excreted, they accumulate in living things.
Land development
Land development refers to the process of acquiring land for residential housing construction as well as the process of making, installing, or constructing nonresidential housing improvements such as water lines and Installations for water supply, sewer lines, and sewage disposal and treatment, steam, gas, and electric lines and installations, roads, streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, storm drainage facilities, other related pollution control facilities.
Clearing, grubbing, stripping, removal of vegetation, dredging, grading, excavating, transporting, and filling of land, construction, paving, and any other installation of impervious cover are all examples of land development.
Conclusion
Soil pollution is the degradation of the Earth’s land surface caused by poor agricultural practices, mineral exploitation, industrial waste dumping, and indiscriminate urban waste disposal. Stock breeding and intensive farming use chemicals, pesticides, and fertilisers, which pollute the land, just as heavy metals and other natural and man-made chemical substances do. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, soil pollution is a global threat that is especially severe in regions such as Europe, Eurasia, Asia, and North Africa. Xenobiotics are chemicals to which an organism is exposed that are not intrinsic to the organism’s normal metabolism.
