# Environmental and human health risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in a Soil-Plant System Irrigated with Reclaimed Water in the Mediterranean Region

Sara Rodriguez-Mozaz, Marc Castaño-Trias, Paola Verlicchi, Gianluigi Buttiglieri

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Sara Rodriguez-Mozaz, Marc Castaño-Trias, Paola Verlicchi, Gianluigi Buttiglieri. Environmental and human health risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in a Soil-Plant System Irrigated with Reclaimed Water in the Mediterranean Region. REUSE EUROMED 2024: Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Wastewater Reuse, Oct 2024, MONTPELLIER, France. hal-05527310

HAL Id: hal-05527310

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05527310v1

Submitted on 25 Feb 2026

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Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
Environmental and human health risk assessment of
pharmaceuticals in a Soil-Plant System Irrigated
with Reclaimed Water in the Mediterranean Region

Sara Rodriguez-Mozaz*†1, Marc Castaño-Trias<fnref n="1" />, Paola Verlicchi<fnref n="2" />, and Gianluigi Buttiglieri<fnref n="1" />

Résumé

There is an urgent need for alternative water sources in Mediterranean countries, where
freshwater is becoming a scarce commodity. Reuse of wastewater for crops irrigation in
agriculture s is an attractive strategy to address water stress in these areas. The (re)use of
reclaimed water offers many benefits but careful attention needs to be paid to the presence
of pathogens, suspended solids, and regulated and non-regulated contaminants in the irri-
gation water after the polishing treatments. The objective of this study was to identify the
pharmaceutical contaminants that might pose a risk to aquatic and terrestrial environment
as well as to human health when reclaimed water is used for irrigation of crops, in particular
for lettuce and tomato.

A comprehensive literature study was first conducted to identify the pharmaceuticals fre-
quently detected in secondary effluent in Catalonia (NE Spain). A database with pharma-
ceutical levels observed in wastewater was built for 148 compounds with the information
extracted from field studies reported in 12 publications (2012-2022). A priority list of phar-
maceuticals was then established following a methodology adapted from Verlicchi et al. (2),
based not only on their occurrence in secondary effluents (O) (real data of 10 years of
monitoring), but also on persistence in terms of removal in conventional treatments (P),
bioaccumulation potential (B), toxicity for aquatic organisms (T), and risk to terrestrial en-
vironment as well as to human health through the consumption of crops. Among the 148
pharmaceutical compounds initially considered in the database, 47 compounds (including 14
psychiatric drugs and 7 antibiotics) were selected as relevant for the aquatic ecosystems based
on the OPBT scoring approach, and 6 were highlighted as a risk to the organisms living in
the soil irrigated with reclaimed water. Up to 7 pharmaceuticals (especially carbamazepine
and its transformation products) were potentially taken up by the crops, although none was
found at concentrations that could pose a risk for human through their consumption. The
study highlights the need to accurately select the pharmaceutical residues to be included in
wastewater monitoring programs, and to be considered in wastewater polishing treatments
to eventually reduce their presence in soils and crops irrigated with reclaimed water.

References

<footnote n="1">¹Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) – Espagne</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²University of Ferrara – Italie</footnote>

<footnote>* Intervenant</footnote>

<footnote>†Auteur correspondant: srodriguez@icra.cat</footnote>
(1) Castaño-Trias, M. et al. 2023. A decade of water monitoring in a Mediterranean region: Pharmaceutical prioritization for an upgraded analytical methodology. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management, 20, 100850. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENMM.2023.100850

(2) Verlicchi, P., et al. 2023. Selection of indicator contaminants of emerging concern when reusing reclaimed water for irrigation - A proposed methodology. Science of The Total Environment, 873, 162359. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2023.162359

*Acknowledgements* - The authors thank EU/PRTR Project PCI2022-132980 (SAFE), project PID2020-115456RB-I00/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (ReUseMP3) as well as PhD scholarship from AGAUR 2020FLB00711, and Economy and Knowledge Department of the Catalan Government through a Consolidated Research Groups (ICRA-TECH – 2021 SGR 01283 and ICRA-ENV - 2021 SGR 01282).

**Mots-Clés:** water reuse, edible crops, environmentla risk assessment (ERA), Human Helath Risk Assessment (HHRA), bioaccumulation, emerging pollutants