ABSTRACT
The term ‘contaminated land’ is often used in a general sense to mean any form of contamination of soil or ground. In the main, this contamination is caused by releases from industrial processes (such as leakages, spillages or airborne emissions which have been deposited back on the ground) or by deliberate or accidental deposits of material on the ground (such as waste disposal, mine workings or other application of materials to land). However, it is important to bear in mind that the contamination does not always have to be man made for a problem to be identified (such as the risk from natural radon) and the nature of the contamination may not be just chemical (for example biological substances can contaminate soil).
