Diseases Caused by Soil Pollution

The build-up of toxic compounds, chemicals, salts and radioactive elements in the soil is termed as soil pollution. This has an adverse effect on the growth of plants and indirectly affects the health of human beings too. The most common causes of soil pollution are acid rains, dumping of non-degradable garbage, and the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides in the soil. Acid rains contain harmful elements in them which get mixed with the soil, degrading the quality of soil. Garbage dumping, specially plastic, is one of the major causes of soil contamination which, not just degrades soil fertility but also litters the place around. Soil pollutants enter the soil through the excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers. Water runoff from the polluted soil, can even seep into ground water supplies, causing water pollution as well. There are two ways one can actually come in contact with contaminated soil, it's either direct or indirect. As adults coming in direct contact with the soil is a little rare, unless your work demands you to do the same (in case of gardening). However, there a number of ways one indirectly comes in contact with contaminated soil, both eventually leading to diseases and health problems. A few of which have been mentioned below. In this article we are going to discuss how does contaminated soil affect human health.