Soil Parts
...toxic compounds, chemicals, salts, radioactive materials, or disease causing agents, which have adverse effects on plant growth and animal health.
The wars that hit the earth are probably the immediate cause of soil pollution. Not talking in the sense of how many people died but in that it is through this period that many countries found the necessity to improve their living standards. After the world war two, many countries suffered from food shortage and this facilitated the interaction of fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals. Although KNP [Potassium, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus] fertilizers have not led to soil pollution, the application of trace elements has.
Pesticides such as DDT [dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane] a colorless chemical pesticide, which is a potent nerve poison in insects, was first widely used to combat diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. It was later used to control and/ or eradicate disease carrying and crop eating insects. DDT was later on discovered to cause endangerment of species in the same food chain as the
controlled insects, particularly birds. DDT prevents the shelling of bird eggs and in humans causes health threats.
In yet another famous war of Vietnam in 1970's was introduced another Chemical substance which had a more adverse effect than that of DDT, Dioxin a chemical impurity resulting from the production of the auxin 2, 4,5T. Dioxin is a toxic chemical and was used as a defoliant by the American army. Dioxin was a major constituent of argent orange which was applied on trees which would then fall off revealing enemy camps. After the war it was found that the chemical cause congenital deformalities and mental effects to the children born to the American soldiers and in the area over which it was applied. In minute amount dioxin has the ability to cause cancer, chloracne, miscarriage, and fetal...
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