Effects of the Pollution by Heavy Metals in a Soil with Agricultural Use/Efectos de la contaminacion por metales pesados en un suelo con uso agricola

The scientific community recognizes the importance of soil as an essential resource and the need to establish indicators that improve their productivity by protecting them, and, at the same time, the environment, human health and food safety. Trace elements that can be present in high concentrations in these soils are food toxics and their negative effects on health are manifested in the long term. The increase in cancer cases, nervous system injuries and genetic diseases is reported, because of the consumption of water and food contaminated with toxic elements. Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence is an analytical method that has demonstrated high efficiency and adequate detection limits. That non-destructive nuclear technique allows multi-element analysis of large volumes of samples at a low cost. Therefore, the scientific group FITOPLANT of UNAH studies agro ecosystems affected by environmental pollution in the municipality of San José de las Lajas. It proposes to evaluate pollution conditionality in agricultural land that receives industrial waste. The analysis revealed that the soil is classified as moderately contaminated in Cr, Co, Zn and Pb and it needs urgent remediation due to the content of Ni and Cu.