Pharmaceuticals and Personal-Care Products in Plants

Bartrons_Peñuelas_Trends_Pixabay_Feb2017
Pharmaceuticals and personal-care products reach plants predominantly from the use of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation. Photo by Pixabay

 

Pharmaceutical and personal-care products (PPCPs) for human and animal use are increasingly released into the environment.

Plants act as excellent tracers of global pollution because they are present in almost all areas of the planet and accumulate chemical compounds present in the atmosphere, in the water with which they are irrigated, and in the soil on which they grow.

PPCP removal from plants for waste water treatment is incomplete, and the dispersal of these compounds into the environment and accumulation in plants mostly occurs from irrigating with reused water and from the application of biosolids and manure to land.

In a featured article in the journal Trends in Plant Science, UVIC and CREAF-CSIC researchers highlighted the potential of plants as biomonitors of PPCPs in the environment and the risk that the dietary intake of these PPCP-contaminated plants could have on the entire biosphere including on human health, even at low concentrations.

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