ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of cultivations of maize and bean in pots containing soil doped with 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in the concentration range between 1 and 752 ppt. The aim of the research is to establish the capacity of the higher plants to absorb, translocate, accumulate and possibly eliminate TCDD. The contamination of the aboveground parts of the higher plants suggests that it occurs mainly through the evaporation of TCDD from contaminated soils. In most cases in the roots and the sediments created by suspension in water from the already washed roots, TCDD levels were found which were higher than those of the soil in which the crop was grown. A loss of TCDD over time was evident, probably mainly by volatilization. The differences found even for pots with the same initial concentration may perhaps be attributed to different volatility rates due to different humidity contents in the soil, to the homogenization of the soil and to analytical precision.
