About 10 percent farmland in east China's Jiangsu Province has been polluted by car exhaust fumes, a latest research by Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science (NIES) showed.

Analysis on roadside earth and crop samples collected throughout the province indicated as many as over hundred kinds of poisons in seriously polluted soil. On top of the most common lead (Pb) pollution, organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon were also detected which were biologically accumulative, poisonous and capable of causing cancer, deformity and sudden genetic change.

Most of these poisonous substances came from car exhaust fumes and solids, said Lin Yusuo, an expert on soil studies. Sample analysis showed that Pb pollution was most serious along the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, with Pb contained in wheat from some sections 7.98 times national standard. Experts suggested that in city planning, transportation must be balanced against land use, and better not to plant grains and vegetables within 250 meters from roadside.

By People's Daily Online