Health risk assessment of vegetables and garden soil contaminated with pharmaceutical residues from irrigation water

The perseverance of pharmaceuticals in water has led to their occurrence in the agroecosystem potentially posing significant human health risks. This study examined the presence of efavirenz, ibuprofen, naproxen, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim in river water, garden soils, cabbage, and spinach. Ultrasound-assisted extraction and solid phase extraction techniques were used to prepare solid and aqueous samples, respectively, before LC-qTOF-MS analysis. The sample preparation methods gave 79-119% recoveries upon validation. The method quantification limits for aqueous and solid samples were 0.07-5.4 ng/L and 0.28-25.3 ng/kg, respectively. The study detected efavirenz (2-181 ng/L), ibuprofen (34-460 ng/L), naproxen (<LOQ-980 ng/L), sulfamethoxazole (<LOQ-209 ng/L), and trimethoprim (10-183 ng/L) in river water. In the edible portion of vegetables, ibuprofen, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim were detected in cabbage leaves, whereas only trimethoprim was detected in spinach leaves. Trimethoprim was the only drug detected in irrigation water (1030 ng/L), while trimethoprim and ibuprofen were detected below quantification limits in garden soil samples. The concentrations of efavirenz and sulfamethoxazole in river water were found to be of significant risk to Vibrio fischeri and algae. However, all the detected pharmaceuticals in the edible portion of vegetables pose a negligible risk to human health. The study also tentatively identified 108 additional drugs, highlighting the need for more monitoring of pharmaceuticals in human food chains.