Soil contamination as a possible long-term consequence of war in Croatia

Abstract War in Croatia resulted in a significant release of contaminants into the environment as a result of the use of combat assets, mainly conventional, mostly aimed at civilian targets. The aim of the study was to investigate the concentration of metals and metalloids in the soils of eastern Croatia. Compared with soil samples from areas exposed to low intensity combat activity soil samples from areas exposed to heavy fighting had higher concentrations of As, Hg and Pb than allowed by national legislation for ecologic farming as well as even higher concentrations of Hg than the maximum allowed values for agriculture in general. Descriptive statistics shows that mean values of Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, P and Ba are all higher in samples collected at the areas of high combat activity compared with the ones collected from the low combat activity areas. Sb concentration was elevated in one location, which can also be correlated with population exposure. The results of the principal component analysis suggest possible correlation between the war activity and the degree of contamination by the metals found in ammunition.