British Geological Survey: Potentially Harmful Elements

The British Geological Survey (BGS) consider that a significant proportion of the landscape in Great Britain has naturally elevated topsoil concentrations of some Potentially Harmful Elements. The GroundSure Insight report contains the BGS “soil chemistry” data relating to arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel and lead, which can occur naturally in the environment and under certain circumstances can be harmful to plants, animals or people.

The database estimates the geometric mean concentrations (mg kg-1) in surface soil and has been derived from data collected from soil geochemical surveys of Great Britain. The majority of the surveys were undertaken by the BGS as part of the Geochemical Baseline Surveys of the Environment (G-BASE) project or by larger multi-disciplinary projects (e.g. the BGS LondonEarth project).

Environmental consultants will find the BGS Potentially Harmful Elements data in the product GroundSure GeoInsight, available from £30,00 for sites up to 10 ha.

The BGS are launching their latest “London urban soil data” at London Earth on 13th May in London. If you are interested in attending more information can be obtained, please visit the BGS London Earth webpages.

           

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