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Lead pollution of London soils: a potential restriction on their use for growing vegetables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

B. E. Davies ,
Deirdre Conway  and
Sarah Holt
B. E. Davies
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University College of Wales, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 3DB
Deirdre Conway
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University College of Wales, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 3DB
Sarah Holt
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University College of Wales, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 3DB
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Extract

Great Britain relies heavily on imported food and Cantell (1977) has estimated that within urban areas there are over 100000 ha of dormant land (i.e. derelict and awaiting development) for which the most fundamentally valuable temporary use is growing food, since such land, Cantell claims, could yield 25 million tonnes of potatoes or 4 million tonnes of carrots annually. The national waiting list for allotments exceeds 100000 and, according to Thorpe (1969), vegetables are grown on nearly all (98·3%) urban allotments. Underlying the case for encouraging the agricultural or horticultural use of dormant land is the supposition that, once cleared of junk, urban soils differ little in potential quality from farmland. But this is not necessarily so: Purves & Mackenzie (1970) have reported that vegetables grown in Scottish urban soils were contaminated by trace metals as have Warren, Delavault & Fletcher (1971) in Canada, Beavington (1973) in Australia and Davies (1978) in England. Lead, is one of the commonest urban pollutants and many countries set limits on the concentration permitted in food. In Great Britain the present limit is 2 mg/kg (fresh weight) but it is planned to reduce this to 1 mg/kg.

Type
Short Note
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 93 , Issue 3 , December 1979 , pp. 749 - 752
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

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