Military-related Heavy Metal Pollution in Soil
A Scientific Review
Copyright (c) 2026 Stadler Tamás
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
It is well known that during armed conflicts, as well as military trainings, large amounts of pollutants can be released into nature. Of the eleven environmentally toxic elements, Pb, Zn and Cu are often present in high concentrations in the soils of military sites, along with Cd and As. According to newer data from the Russo–Ukrainian War, the inorganic contaminants (mostly toxic elements) show a concentrical distribution in the affected areas, caused by artillery activity; however, the spatial distribution of Pb in the training sites is more dispersed.
Risk assessment, then physicochemical and bioremediation methods can be used for cleaning up the polluted areas from the contaminants after the closure of the armed conflicts or training; however, the complexity, caused by the contaminant mixtures and the great variability of soil components, of the pollution affects the success of the procedure heavily.
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