有关专家日前警告称，中国的土壤污染已经达到了令人震惊的水平，并将造成巨大的经济损失，影响几代人的健康。

　　China's arable land is shrinking due to soil pollution and is bringing huge economic losses to a country already short of farmland.

　　由于土壤污染，中国的耕地正在萎缩，给本就缺少农田的国家带来巨大的经济损失。

　　China has 22 percent of the world's population but only 9 percent of the planet's arable land, Gao Guilin, a law professor at Beijing's Capital University of Economics and Business, said at a forum held last Sunday, news site legaldaily.cn reported on Sunday.

　　北京首都经济贸易大学法学院教授高桂林在上周日举行的一个论坛上表示，中国的人口占世界的22％，但耕地只占世界的9％。

　　Gao cited statistics released by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection that 12 million tons of crops in China are polluted by soil contaminated with heavy metals annually, which would cause a yearly loss of 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion).

　　高桂林教授引用中国环境保护部发布的统计数据称，中国每年有1200万吨作物受到土壤重金属的污染，每年造成200亿元的损失（29亿美元）。

　　我国每年1200万吨粮食报废 土壤重金属污染治理告急

　　Soil pollution also poses a great threat to public health as pollutants, including heavy metals, pesticides and agricultural antibiotics, and severely affects the quality of crops.

　　土壤污染也对公众的健康构成了极大的威胁，包括重金属、农药和农业抗生素等污染物，严重影响了作物的质量。

　　The Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration revealed that among the 18 batches of rice tested during random checks, eight were found to contain excessive amounts of heavy metal, which is known as a strong carcinogen and can cause pathological changes in kidney and other organs.

　　据广州食品药品监督管理局透露，在随机检查的18批次的大米中，有8批次含有过量的重金属，被称为强致癌物质，可导致肾脏和其他器官的病变。

　　Gao said preserving protected arable land should be a priority, surveillance of land should be enhanced, and cleaning up should be done as soon as pollution is detected.

　　高桂林教授说，保护耕地应该是一个优先考虑的事，应加强对土地的监测，一旦发现污染就应该进行清理。

　　According to latest figures from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources, about 16.1 percent of China's surveyed land is polluted by heavy metals including cadmium, arsenic, lead and mercury.

　　根据环境保护部和国土资源部的最新数据，在我国接受调查的土地中，约有16.1％被包括镉、砷、铅和汞的重金属所污染。

　　Last year, the central government allocated 2.8 billion yuan for anti-pollution projects in 30 prefecture-level cities, but experts said it is far from enough.

　　去年，中央政府拨款28亿元用于30个地级市治理污染的项目，但专家表示，这还远远不够。