Abstract
Irrigation with reclaimed wastewater is a growing practice aimed at conserving freshwater sources, especially in arid and semiarid regions. Despite the apparent advantages to water management, the practice of irrigation with reclaimed wastewater exposes the agroenvironment to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). In this report, we estimated the unintentional dietary exposure of the Israeli population (2808 participants) to CECs from consumption of produce irrigated with reclaimed wastewater using detailed dietary data obtained from a National Health and Nutrition Survey (Rav Mabat adults; 2014–2016). Human health risk analyses were conducted based on acceptable daily intake (ADI) and threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) approaches. The highest unintentional exposure to wastewater-borne CECs was found to occur through the consumption of leafy vegetables. All analyzed CECs exhibited hazard quotients <1 for the mean- and high-exposure scenarios, indicating no human health concerns. However, for the extreme exposure scenario, the anticonvulsant agents lamotrigine and carbamazepine, and the carbamazepine metabolite epoxide-carbamazepine exhibited the highest exposure levels of 29,100, 27,200, and 19,500 ng/person (70 kg) per day, respectively. These exposure levels exceeded the TTC of lamotrigine and the metabolite epoxide-carbamazepine, and the ADI of carbamazepine, resulting in hazard quotients of 2.8, 1.1, and 1.9, respectively. According to the extreme estimated scenario, consumption of produce irrigated with reclaimed wastewater (leafy vegetables in particular) may pose a threat to human health. Minimizing irrigation of leafy vegetables using reclaimed wastewater and/or improving the quality of the reclaimed wastewater using an advanced treatment would significantly reduce human dietary exposure to CECs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 118986 |
| Journal | Water Research |
| Volume | 223 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Sep 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was financially supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through a grant (activity 29142) to the Dutch Friends of the Hebrew University (NVHU). We also acknowledge the Israel Center for Disease Control staff members who were involved in conducting the survey and collecting the data, and express our gratitude to Simha Rorlik, Shira Goldenberg, Yifat Zvuluni, and Nir Ben-Porat for helping with the collection and preparation of the plant samples. In addition, we would like to thank the Israel Innovation Authority and the PRIMA programme (“Risk reduction of chemical residues in soils and crops – impact due to wastewater used for irrigation” RESIDUE- PCI2020-111967) for supporting this work (Phytor Lab).
Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through a grant (activity 29142) to the Dutch Friends of the Hebrew University (NVHU). We also acknowledge the Israel Center for Disease Control staff members who were involved in conducting the survey and collecting the data, and express our gratitude to Simha Rorlik, Shira Goldenberg, Yifat Zvuluni, and Nir Ben-Porat for helping with the collection and preparation of the plant samples. In addition, we would like to thank the Israel Innovation Authority and the PRIMA programme (“Risk reduction of chemical residues in soils and crops – impact due to wastewater used for irrigation” RESIDUE- PCI2020-111967) for supporting this work (Phytor Lab).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Agriculture
- Hazard quotient
- Pharmaceutical
- Risk assessment
- Treated wastewater
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Engineering
- Civil and Structural Engineering
- Ecological Modeling
- Water Science and Technology
- Waste Management and Disposal
- Pollution
