In:
Journal of Environmental Quality, Wiley, Vol. 39, No. 4 ( 2010-07), p. 1201-1210
Abstract:
The irrigation of agricultural land with wastewater is increasingly practiced in many parts of the world as a consequence of growing populations and urbanization. The risks emerging from pharmaceuticals that are contained in wastewater for soils and groundwater have hardly been investigated. We studied leaching and effects of naproxen, ibuprofen, bezafibrate, diclofenac, gemfibrocil, clarithromycin, trimethoprim, clindamycin, erythromycin, and metoprolol in a soil column experiment simulating an irrigation event with 8.6 cm of wastewater containing 20 μg L −1 or 2000 μg L −1 of each compound or of erythromycin alone. The leached fraction of applied pharmaceuticals ranged from 0.1 ± 0.1% (clarithromycin, 2000 μg L −1 ) to 130 ± 41% (naproxen, 20 μg L −1 ) and tended to increase with decreasing K d or K oc Naproxen transport was similar to that of the tracer chloride. Ibuprofen was also hardly retarded ( R = 1.20 ± 0.18), but showed a higher degradation rate of 0.02 ± 0.004 h −1 (2000 μg L −1 ) than naproxen. The transport of a pulse of 2000 μg L −1 of bezafibrate could be described with a retardation factor of 1.5 and a degradation rate of 0.033 h −1 The application of erythromycin alone or of a cocktail of all pharmaceuticals significantly increased soil CO 2 emissions by 50% 1 d after the application. There is a considerable risk that pharmaceuticals are leached to groundwater during wastewater irrigation.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0047-2425
,
1537-2537
DOI:
10.2134/jeq2009.0105
Language:
English
Publisher:
Wiley
Publication Date:
2010
detail.hit.zdb_id:
120525-0
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2050469-X
