ABSTRACT
Soil has always been an important depository of the various organic chemicals produced naturally or anthropogenically. Organic pollutants that were once released into the air or water will someday end up in the soil. The exception might be those chemicals deposited at the bottom of the oceans. Soil contamination is a serious human and environmental problem for both industrialized and nonindustrialized nations (Aelion, 2004). Soil has been recognized as a potentially important medium of exposure. A large body of evidence has shown the risks of adverse health effects with the exposure of humans to contaminated soil. Children appear to have a much higher level of exposure to toxic substances in the soil than adults. This is thought to be due to pica and mouthing behavior of younger children (Sedman, 1989). One would think, with the large quantities of organic chemicals used in agriculture for the production of crops, in particular pesticides (Niu and Yu, 2004), that urban areas would have less pollution-related health problems. However, urban areas have a legacy of environmental pollution linked to industrial activities, coal burning, motor vehicle emissions, waste incineration, and waste dumping (Leake et al., 2009). In agricultural areas, because of the effort to provide people with adequate quantities of agricultural products, farmers have been using an increasing amount of organic chemicals, but the resulting pollution has enormous potential for environmental damage (Niu and Yu, 2004).
