The difficult assessment of heavy metal contamination of soils and plants in Elbe river floodplains

The investigations on total sums of heavy metals indicated that topsoils in the floodplains in the German part of the river Elbe are in part markedly enriched. The contamination exceeds the action values of the Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Site Ordinance. Looking on known concentrations of heavy metals in the pasture vegetation, however, threshold values for fodder are not exceeded in most cases. As livestock takes up a part of contaminants by inhalation and ingestion of soil particles and as the contamination in the vegetation is variable in space and time, the actual risk of heavy metal transfer in the food chain has needs to be studied.