Up to 17 percent of the planet’s agricultural land may be contaminated by toxic heavy metals, a new study has found.

As many as 1.4 billion people reside in areas with soil dangerously polluted with compounds like arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel and lead, according to the study, published in Science.

Toxic heavy metal pollution can come from a range of sources, including both natural and human activities, noted the multinational team of researchers, led by Deyi Hou of China’s Tsinghua University.

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