Soil contamination issues: past, present and future, a personal perspective

I am honoured to be asked to speak on this topic but am daunted by the huge amount of work that has been done over a very long period in a range of contexts and for many potentially toxic contaminants. Having a personal perspective as a term of reference simplifies the task to some extent because of the extensive literature on this topic. This has inevitably resulted in additional emphasis on my own work which in the earlier stages of my scientific career was related to problems connected to the soil chemistry of trace metals, their availability to plants and soil fertility. I will only briefly refer to organic contaminants. I believe that many of the principles and mechanisms being investigated then have continued relevance although modern-day research has focussed on problems of soil contamination in which different heavy metals may be of concern. Equally, some of the weaknesses of early research approaches are still evident in currently published papers. The only difference is that with the advance in knowledge and experience, deficiencies in experimentation cannot now so easily be justified. These will be discussed later.