title: Irrigation of root vegetables with treated wastewater: evaluating uptake of pharmaceuticals and the associated human health risks.
abstract: To meet mounting water demands, treated wastewater has become an important source of irrigation. Thus, contamination of treated wastewater by pharmaceutical compounds (PCs) and the fate of these compounds in the agricultural environment are of increasing concern. This field study aimed to quantify PC uptake by treated wastewater-irrigated root crops (carrots and sweet potatoes) grown in lysimeters and to evaluate potential risks. In both crops, the nonionic PCs (carbamazepine, caffeine, and lamotrigine) were detected at significantly higher concentrations than ionic PCs (metoprolol, bezafibrate, clofibric acid, diclofenac, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, sulfamethoxazole, and sildenafil). PCs in leaves were found at higher concentrations than in the roots. Carbamazepine metabolites were found mainly in the leaves, where the concentration of the metabolite 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine was significantly higher than the parent compound. The health risk associated with consumption of wastewater-irrigated root vegetables was estimated using the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) approach. Our data show that the TTC value of lamotrigine can be reached for a child at a daily consumption of half a carrot (∼60 g). This study highlights that certain PCs accumulated in edible organs at concentrations above the TTC value should be categorized as contaminants of emerging concern.
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Tomer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Malchi
authors.forename: Yehoshua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Maor
authors.forename: Galit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tadmor
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shenker
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chefetz
mesh_terms: D057914:Agricultural Irrigation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D011634:Public Health; D012306:Risk; D014675:Vegetables / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical