Effects of irrigation water quality on the presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products in topsoil and vegetables in greenhouses

The presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment has harmful effects on humans and the ecosystem. Reclaimed water irrigation may introduce PPCPs into the agricultural system. Here, a greenhouse experiment investigated the impact of reclaimed water irrigation on PPCP levels in the edible parts of vegetables and topsoil in the North China Plain in 2015 and 2016. Three treatment protocols were applied to each vegetable: irrigation with reclaimed water, irrigation with groundwater, and mixed irrigation with groundwater and reclaimed water (1:1, v/v). The total concentrations of 10 PPCPs in the topsoil (0–20 cm deep) and vegetables were 4.06–19.0 and 2.33–189 μg/kg, respectively. Among the target PPCPs, acetyl-sulfamethoxazole (AC-SMX) had the highest concentration in both soil and vegetables (0.23–10.8 and 1.56–116 μg/kg, respectively). The total concentration of the 10 PPCPs among cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, and cucumber were 13.1–28.1, 10.3–28.3, 2.33–4.04, and 110–189 μg/kg, respectively. The total hazard quotients for the mixture of target PPCPs across all vegetables were 0.0007 and 0.0003 for toddlers and adults, respectively. Compared with groundwater irrigation, reclaimed water irrigation did not evidently affect the vegetable yields, soil-vegetable PPCP concentrations, and BCFs. In this study, we found no potential hazard to human health when people consumed vegetables grown using reclaimed water irrigation.