In the years 1995 and 1996 a study was conducted to investigate the heavy metal contamination of soil and crops (flax and oil-seed rape) in the vicinity of the "Glogow Copper Smelter" in Poland. The concentration of copper, as the main soil pollutant, ranges from background amounts to levels higher than admissible limits. The patterns of copper spatial distribution observed in the vicinity of the smelter is, to a large degree, accounted for by dominant wind direction and distance from the smelter. The area of elevated total soil Cu content, i.e. above 100 mg/kg soil, spreads up to 5.4 km in the NE and 4.9 km in the SE directions but only up to 2.9 km in the NW and 3.9 km in the SW directions from the emitters and covers 3,750 ha. Copper concentrations in capsules of both crops exceeded those in the other plant organs. Hence, the capsules can be the place of copper hyperaccumulation and could be used as bioindicators of Cu spatial distribution. It was also found that the area contaminated by copper as defined by the threshold value of 100 mg/kg soil Cu is about 50% larger than that determined by the threshold value of 15 mg Cu/kg DW in rape capsules.