Introduction
Recently, attention for chemistry research has been directed towards "Green Chemistry" which is the design of chemical "processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances".(1) The Twelve Main Principles of Green Chemistry encompass this definition over a wider range. Specifically the 1st principle which states to prevent waste which needs to be specially treated or cleaned up.(2) Not only are these principles better for the environment, they are able to save money as well.(3) While the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has funded several projects under Green Chemistry, there are still processes which involve hazardous materials.(4) One of those is the method of soil dissolution for heavy metal analysis.(5) Before this is looked into; however, the causes and effects of soil pollution must be looked into, as soil digestion is part of a process used to determine qualitative and quantitative data about soil contamination.