Contaminants alter the properties of soil and sediments, thus making them less suitable to host plants and animals and creating situations of danger for humans and other living organisms.

Analytical surveys on soils, through high quality test protocols, allow decisions to be taken based on scientifically defensible data for the protection of the environment and the protection of citizens’ safety. The tests support the management of the risk analyzes and guarantee full comparability with the checks performed by relevant control bodies.

Mérieux NutriSciences performs soil analysis and sampling in contaminated sites to verify their degree of contamination, and in uncontaminated areas to verify the possible reuse of the soil obtained by excavation works.

Soil analysis plays an extremely important role in environmental investigations aimed at the characterization of sites for commercial/industrial use but also for residential/public-private green areas, thus conditioning the construction of infrastructural works or the start-up of land reclamation or disposal activities.

Testing sediments is one of the best approaches to obtain historical information on the pollution of an areabecause they represent the environmental matrix that gathers both materials coming from the rocks in the emerged land and spilling into the environment caused by human activities.

The main soil analyzes performed by Mérieux NutriSciences include:

• Analysis of excavated land and rocks
• Sediment analysis
• Analysis on samples from surveys, trenches, excavation bottom
• Granulometric curves and soil geotechnical classification
• Evaluation of soil chemical aggression against concrete
• Analysis of sludge, residues and compost to be uses in agriculture