Resumen de Should we be concerned about the presence of pharmaceuticals during unplanned water reuse for crop irrigation?
Raffaella Meffe, A. de Santiago Martín, G. Teijón, Virtudes Martínez, Isabel López Heras, Luis A. L. Nozal, Irene de Bustamante Gutiérrez
The use of surface water impacted by wastewater treatment plant effluents for crop irrigation may imply the exposure of crops to contaminants of emerging concern. This research aims to evaluate under real field conditions if natural attenuation processes mitigate the concentration of 25 pharmaceuticals and transformation products (TPs) or if they are taken up by the crop (i.e. maize) inducing a potential risk to human health. The threshold of toxicological concern approach (TTC) has been used as a first screening for assessing possible risk to human health. Samples from different matrices (irrigation water, infiltrating water, agricultural soil, maize) were collected and analysed for pharmaceutical and TP content. Results demonstrate the attenuation of the majority of target contaminants. Consumption of maize does not pose any threat to human health; however additional toxicity test would be required for the metamizole TP 4AAA and the analgesic acetaminophen.
