Land
The effects of air and water pollution are visible and obviously
threatening to human health, but the importance of soil is often
overlooked. Perhaps this is because soil's capacity to absorb
pollutants has masked their long term effects, however this
has meant that much of the legislation and regulation that
does mention soil is actually designed to protect our water or air
environment, rather than soil for its own sake.
Scotland has a large diversity of soil types that react in
different ways to environmental pressures. This State of the
Environment Soil Quality Report sets out to review, for the
first time, the state of our soils. There are few parts of the
country that escape the pressures that we inflict on our soil,
whether from air pollution, agricultural and forestry practices,
including applying waste to land, or from industrial
contamination:
State of the
Environment Soil Quality Report 
(3.0mb)