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Book (stand-alone)Global assessment of soil pollution
Summary for policymakers
2021Also available in:
Soil pollution is invisible to the human eye, but it compromises the quality of the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe and puts human and environmental health at risk. Most contaminants originate from human activities such as industrial processes and mining, poor waste management, unsustainable farming practices, accidents ranging from small chemical spills to accidents at nuclear power plants, and the many effects of armed conflicts. Pollution knows no borders: contaminants are spread throughout terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and many are distributed globally by atmospheric transport. In addition, they are redistributed through the global economy by way of food and production chains. Soil pollution has been internationally recognized as a major threat to soil health, and it affects the soil’s ability to provide ecosystems services, including the production of safe and sufficient food, compromising global food security. Soil pollution hinders the achievement of many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those related to poverty elimination (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2) and good health and well-being (SDG 3). Soil pollution hits the most vulnerable hardest, especially children and women (SDG 5). The supply of safe drinking water is threatened by the leaching of contaminants into groundwater and runoff (SDG 6). CO2 and N2O emissions from unsustainably managed soils accelerate climate change (SDG 13). Soil pollution contributes to land degradation and loss of terrestrial (SDG 15) and aquatic (SDG 14) biodiversity, and decreased security and resilience of cities (SDG 11), among others. The report addresses the extent and future trends of soil pollution, considering both point source and diffuse soil pollution, and describes the risks and impacts of soil pollution on health, the environment and food security – including land degradation and the burden of disease resulting from exposure to polluted soil. The process to develop the report involved in-depth regional assessments of soil pollution, and the regional chapters provide an overview of soil pollution issues at the global scale that is long overdue (Figure 1). The Editorial Board comprised over 30 international experts representing the ITPS, the Regional Soil Partnerships, relevant international fora and expert groups, and the private sector. The Summary for Policymakers presents the main findings of the report, together with options for action to facilitate global policy considerations in the UNEA process. The main report is a comprehensive publication which is available on the FAO website. -
DocumentGlobal Symposium on Soil Pollution. Concept Note and Agenda
Rome, Italy, 2 - 4 May 2018
2018Also available in:
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BookletNuclear and isotopic techniques to assess the fate and impacts of plastic pollution on soil ecosystems and the environment 2024
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No results found.Plastics (Ps) are widely used by people, and their production has increased from 1.7 million metric tonnes in 1950 to 359 million metric tonnes in 2018. The production, demand, and waste of plastics and microplastics (MPs, plastic particles <5 mm in size) have grown exponentially in the last century. However, despite their benefits to society, most plastics end up on land and in the soil (long-term sink), degrading into MP before entering the marine environment. The current conventional and isotopic methods, their advantages and disadvantages are discussed in this document. This document focuses on the methodologies that contribute to comprehensive monitoring (fate and dynamics) and assessment of the impacts of plastic on soil fauna, that eventually lead to the development of mitigation strategies, as well as for evaluating the effectiveness of such measures. The cost–benefit and cost–effectivity analyses are not discussed in this technical paper. Neither does the paper touch on risk management approaches, such as hazard identification, exposure assessment, toxicological assessments, and the overall risk assessment.
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