EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL USE OF PHOSPHOGYPSUM ON TRACE-ELEMENTS IN SOILS AND VEGETATION

The problem of the disposal of phosphogypsum, one of the main industrial wastes of phosphorus fertilizer production, is reviewed, from the point of view of element pollution of phosphate raw materials, when it is introduced to soil. When phosphogypsum from different phosphorus producing plants in the USSR is used in agriculture, the main element-pollutants are fluorine, sulphur, strontium and rare earth elements. Their concentration in soils and vegetation exceeds Clark values by 20-100 times. The necessity for complex biogeochemical investigations to identify the hazards from these chemical elements in the environment is discussed.