Notice of RetractionHeavy Metal Pollution in Agricultural Soils of Changzhou, China

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

In order to investigate the environmental quality of agriculture in Changzhou, agricultural soils in 451 sampling points of six areas in Changzhou were sampled and tested for heavy metal concentrations. Single and compositive pollution indexes were used for the evaluation of the soils. The main results are listed below: (1) the soils were slightly polluted generally, and the compositive pollution index for Changzhou was less than 0.7, a safe grade. But the compositive pollution index for surburb area was 0.934, reaching a cautionary grade (0.7-1.0). (2) The levels of heavy metal pollution were higher in the areas near city zones, because of dense population and concentrated industries. (3) The major heavy metal pollutants are mercury (Hg), copper (Cu) and chromium (Cr).