Pharmaceuticals, Their Metabolites, and Other Polar Pollutants in Field-Grown Vegetables Irrigated with Treated Municipal Wastewater

The reuse of treated municipal wastewater for crop irrigation is a necessity in arid and semiarid regions but a potential entrance for emerging contaminants into the food chain. However, little attention has yet been paid to the detection of micropollutants and possible metabolites in vegetables grown under realistic field conditions. In this study, the uptake of 28 micropollutants and carbamazepine metabolites in 10 different field-grown vegetable species (among them carrot, lettuce, potato, and zucchini) from Jordan was studied. A total of 12 micropollutants and six carbamazepine metabolites, four of which have never been analyzed before in plant-uptake studies, could be detected in all of the samples in concentrations ranging from 1.7 to 216 ng per g of dry weight. In edible tissues, the total concentration of micropollutants decreased in the order of leafy (247-533) > root (73-126) > fruit-bearing (5-76 ng per g of dry weight) vegetables. A preliminary health-risk assessment for nine compounds according to the TTC concept shows no risk for seven of the micropollutats; for ciprofloxacin and 10,11-epoxycarbamazepine, however, more-specific toxicity data would be required for a refined risk assessment.