Rodriguez Enrique E, Dickman Rebecca, Kennedy Bradley, Aga Diana, Noe-Hays Abraham, Wigginton Krista R, Jolliet Olivier, Love Nancy G
Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States.
Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2025 Jul 1;59(25):13034-13041. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.4c12633. Epub 2025 Jun 19.
Urine-derived fertilizers (UDFs) are a sustainable alternative to energy-intensive and environmentally damaging synthetic fertilizers; however, contaminant concerns must be addressed. Source-separated urine contains pharmaceutical compounds that could pose a risk to the environment and public health. While treatment technologies that address pharmaceutical contamination in UDF have been proposed, little is known about the exposure and risk to public health that UDF-fertilized crops pose. We assessed pharmaceutical uptake by lettuce exposed to UDF spiked with pharmaceuticals at two levels: the highest reported concentrations from the literature and at a level 10 times this amount to represent a worst-case scenario for UDF application. Between 0.00004% and 0.0002% of the applied pharmaceutical mass was taken up by lettuce. Exposure to pharmaceuticals through the consumption of UDF-fertilized crops is not significantly different from exposure through crops irrigated with reclaimed water (RW). Compared to therapeutic doses, the cumulative pharmaceutical ingestion associated with consuming UDF-fertilized vegetables every day over 70 years is up to 2.5% of the therapeutic dose of pharmaceuticals considered in this study. Our comparative exposure assessment reveals minimal exposures associated with the consumption of crops that are either fertilized by UDF or irrigated with RW, providing key insights for various stakeholders.
尿液衍生肥料（UDFs）是能源密集型且对环境有破坏作用的合成肥料的一种可持续替代方案；然而，必须解决污染物问题。源头分离的尿液含有可能对环境和公众健康构成风险的药物化合物。虽然已经提出了处理UDF中药物污染的技术，但对于使用UDF施肥的作物对公众健康的暴露和风险知之甚少。我们评估了生菜对添加了两个浓度水平药物的UDF的药物吸收情况：文献报道的最高浓度以及该浓度10倍的水平，以代表UDF应用的最坏情况。生菜吸收了所施药物质量的0.00004%至0.0002%。通过食用使用UDF施肥的作物接触药物与通过使用再生水（RW）灌溉的作物接触药物没有显著差异。与治疗剂量相比，70年内每天食用使用UDF施肥的蔬菜所累积摄入的药物量高达本研究中所考虑药物治疗剂量的2.5%。我们的比较暴露评估显示，食用使用UDF施肥或用RW灌溉的作物所带来的暴露极小，这为各利益相关方提供了关键见解。
