Phytoremediation of organic contaminants in soils

Soil pollution, a very important environmental problem, has been attracting considerable public attention over the last decades. Unfortunately, the en ormous costs associated with the removal of pollutants from soils by means of traditional physicochemical methods have been encouraging companies to i gnore the problem. Phytoremediation is an emerging technology that uses pla nts to clean up pollutants in the environment. As overwhelmingly positive r esults have become available regarding the ability of plants to degrade cer tain organic compounds, more and more people are getting involved in the ph ytoremediation of organic contaminants. Phytoremediation of organics appear s a very promising technology for the removal of these contaminants from po lluted sites. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.