A regional study of soil contamination in North and Northwest immission-impacted Bohemian regions present the results of the assessment of soil loads of agricultural soils by hazardous trace elements and organic xenobiotic substances. The evaluation is based on the exceeding of background values of contaminants (upper limit of their variability). Two forms of soil loads by trace elements are differentiated, the anthropogenic and geogenic one. They occur simultaneously on the territory under study. Geogenic „loads“ prevail (basalts, metallogenic zones). Anthro- pogenic contamination by both hazardous elements and organic xenobiotic substances occurs only in some parts of these severely immission-impacted regions.

        Key words: anthropogenic soil, contamination, geogenic soil loads, immission-impacted regions, hazardous trace elements, organic xenobiotic substances.