Environmental Impact of Hazardous Inorganic Materials:
Pollution and Remediation of Soils

Soils have been contaminated by hazardous inorganic chemicals by human activities. Soil pollution has been a subject of public concern in recent years. The authors describebe brief history of soil pollution, legislation, and measures to meet the guideline in Japan.As a drastic measure for remediating soils polluted by heavy metals and metalloids,various soil washing processes are described includlng author's recent publication. Finally, an in-situ soil flushing processis proposed.