Abstract

Soil contaminated with cadmium was cleaned up in-situ by a HCl extraction technique. The clean-up method reduced the cadmium concentration below A-value. To study ecological risks bioassays were performed with an earthworm (Eisenia andrei) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa) in cleaned up soil as well as in contaminated soil. Both organisms were not able to survive in these soils, unless they were mixed with 25-75% quartzsand. Plants and worms were grown for 28 days. At the start and at the end of the experiments soils, plants and worms were analysed for cadmium. It appeared that the clean up method increased the bioavailability of the cadmium.