Soil is under restoration where an insecticide factory used to be located in Hanyang, Wuhan, Hubei province on Jan 5, 2013. [Photo/IC]

4. Soil

China is developing an action plan for soil pollution prevention and control, which may be released next year. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is also close to issuing a new soil environmental monitoring standard to replace a 20-year-old outdated version.

The new standard paves the way for the introduction of the long awaited action Plan because it provides an array of technical benchmarks for future law enforcement.

Soil pollution is less likely to be noticed compared to air or water contaminations. But the hidden threat comes with a very high level of destruction to the environment. Pollution through farm chemicals such as pesticides, as well as organic pollutants and heavy metal are endangering human health in many parts of China. The most severe cases of pollution in the country were those caused by industrial emissions that release large amounts of heavy metals including cadmium, arsenic, chromium and lead.