No abstract

Soil pollution by heavy metals has been a major environmental problem of the last three decades. Although heavy metals exist naturally in the soil, anthropogenic activities have increased their concentration to levels that are toxic to humans, fauna, and flora health [1]. Activities that produce heavy metals include the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, traffic, mining, smelting, sewage sludge reuse, wastewater irrigation, metal products in industries, sewage sludge and municipal waste disposal [2,3]. Soils contaminated with toxic amounts of heavy metals could potentially cause health problems by ending up in groundwater [4,5] or spreading to the surface by runoff [6].