China is to unroll a national survey to identify hotspots for heavy metal, chemicals and other toxic pollutants as it seeks to rectify its $1tn soil pollution blight. The Financial Times reports Chen Jining, environment minister, said the survey would kick off a long-awaited plan for addressing soil pollution which is expected in May. But geology experts caution that the sensitivity of the issue means it may never be published, noting that an earlier one published in 2014 was initially classified as a state secret. That survey, published three years after completion, found that about one-fifth of China’s agricultural land is polluted.

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