Over the years, significant amounts of environmental toxins are added to urban soils. Photo: RiksantikvarenThree out of four Norwegians live in cities or urban areas, where a consumer culture dominates.
Over time, large amounts of different products (e.g., building materials, paint, coal, oil, gasoline, etc.) have been transported into cities and consequently been used there. Components and residues of such products end up in urban soil, both during use and as waste products.
Added to urban soil
Over the years, significant amounts of environmental toxins are added to urban soils, such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper, mercury, zinc, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCB).
Urban soil is a mixture of the local natural mineral-soil and materials derived from excavation, blasting, building or demolition (incl. bricks, concrete, asphalt), but also, locally, industrial products such as organics and waste. This means that soil in urban areas over time is truly recycled and has been reworked many times.
Pollution-status mapped
NGU has, in collaboration with city municipalities, mapped the pollution-status in surface soils in Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø. The results from these studies show that surface soils in the inner cities are particularly contaminated with lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
The concentration levels of cadmium, copper, mercury, zinc, and chromium in these soils often also exceed the norm values for clean soil as established by the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT).