Pharmaceutical and personal care products in recycled water for edible crop irrigation: Understanding the occurrence, crop uptake, and water quantity effects

Ananta Azad and Haizhou Liu

Agricultural Water Management, 2024, vol. 304, issue C

Abstract: Global water scarcity poses a great challenge to agriculture productivity. Recycled water offers a promising alternative for agricultural irrigation, yet residual pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in recycled water can transfer to edible crops during irrigation, and adversely affect food safety. Furthermore, irrigation water quantity can influence the accumulation of PPCPs in edible crops. This study comprehensively investigates the use of recycled water for agricultural irrigation by critically reviewing three key components: PPCPs occurrence in recycled water, their accumulation in edible crops, and the impact of water quantity on PPCPs accumulation. Literature analysis showed that PPCPs were present from 130 to 1400 ng/L in secondary effluent and 25–400 ng/L in tertiary effluent, with sulfamethoxazole being the most prevalent in both effluents. PPCPs uptake and accumulation varied between leafy and fruity vegetables, with diclofenac accumulating highest in leafy vegetables and fluoxetine in fruity vegetables. Furthermore, the water requirement of leafy and fruity crops vary throughout the growing season. In leafy vegetables, PPCPs accumulation in leaves is influenced by transpiration rate, with reduced accumulation occurring under limited water availability due to slower transpiration. In fruity vegetables, osmotic adjustment drives the water transport in fruits, leading to increased PPCPs accumulation under limited water conditions. This study contributes insights into PPCPs occurrence, accumulation, and irrigation water quantity, aiding in the development of effective strategies for recycled water use in agriculture.

Keywords: Recycled water irrigation; Occurrence; Crop accumulation; Water quantity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377424003822
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:304:y:2024:i:c:s0378377424003822

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2024.109047

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().