Ministry of Environment of Japan made the Soil Contamination Countermeasures Law (referred to hereafter as the Law) on 29 May 2002, in order to prevent health damage which toxic substances in soils could cause by oral ingestion. The pollutants in many cases are toxic metals as Pb, As, Cr(VI) and Hg. The administration of the Law obliges landowners, managers and occupiers of sites of business establishments handling these toxic metals to examine soil contamination by field survey and chemical analysis to determine toxic metal concentrations and their leachabilities when they close their facilities. Because As, Se, Cd, Hg, and Pb are very important metals for economic geologists, they have a lot of knowledge and techniques on geochemistry and mineralogy of these metals. Therefore, economic geologists should be able to contribute to develop techniques surveying toxic metals in contaminated lands, as well as controlling their leachabilities.
The followings are important subjects economic geologists have advantages to develop;
1) Mapping natural levels of toxic heavy metal concentrations in soils
2) Clarifying whether soils have high toxic metal concentrations or high leachabilities caused by anthropogenic or natural processes.
3) Determining chemical interactions between toxic metals and soil materials for fixing toxic metals in soils.
4) Developing on-site chemical analytical techniques for surveying contaminated sites.