Xie Qi, Tan Junwei, Li Hanchang, Xu Xu, Huang Guanhua, Huo Zailin
State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Agricultural Water Resources, Beijing 100083, China; Center for Agricultural Water Research in China, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Agricultural Water Resources, Beijing 100083, China; Center for Agricultural Water Research in China, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2025 Sep 5;495:138985. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138985. Epub 2025 Jun 18.
Emerging contaminants in groundwater have attracted widespread attention, particularly pesticide and antibiotic residuals may lead to considerable environmental health risk and human exposure risk through drinking water. This study aims to investigate the concentration level of emerging contaminants in the groundwater of an agricultural irrigation area located in the North China Plain, and to assess its exposure risks to ecosystem and human health. The groundwater samples were collected across different crop growing stages, and four antibiotics, five pesticides, and three fluorine compounds were analyzed. The human exposure risk was evaluated using a Monte Carlo simulation method. The fluorine compounds were basically below the detection limit of 0.1 ng/L, while the detected maximum mixture concentrations of antibiotics and pesticides were 538 ng/L. Sulfonamides (SAs) and atrazine derivatives (ATZs) were the predominant contaminants with the maximum concentrations of 43 and 507 ng/L, respectively. The average detection rates of different pesticides and antibiotics across three field sampling campaigns varied in the range of 37.0-100 % and 27.5-88.3 %, respectively. The region with a long-term history of wastewater irrigation had the highest average total mixture concentrations of 316 ng/L, which is 3.5-17.1 times that in the other regions. ATZs and SAs posed moderate to high ecological risks to the environment. However, no significant health risks to humans were observed from any of the pollutants at current concentrations. The findings of this study provide important insights into the occurrence, distribution, and exposure risks of groundwater pollutants in the agricultural irrigation areas of the North China Plain.
地下水中的新兴污染物已引起广泛关注，尤其是农药和抗生素残留可能通过饮用水导致相当大的环境健康风险和人类暴露风险。本研究旨在调查华北平原某农业灌溉区地下水中新兴污染物的浓度水平，并评估其对生态系统和人类健康的暴露风险。在不同作物生长阶段采集了地下水样本，并分析了四种抗生素、五种农药和三种氟化合物。使用蒙特卡罗模拟方法评估了人类暴露风险。氟化合物基本低于0.1 ng/L的检测限，而检测到的抗生素和农药的最大混合浓度为538 ng/L。磺胺类药物（SAs）和阿特拉津衍生物（ATZs）是主要污染物，最大浓度分别为43和507 ng/L。在三次现场采样活动中，不同农药和抗生素的平均检出率分别在37.0 - 100%和27.5 - 88.3%的范围内。长期有废水灌溉历史的地区平均总混合浓度最高，为316 ng/L，是其他地区的3.5 - 17.1倍。ATZs和SAs对环境构成了中度到高度的生态风险。然而，在当前浓度下，未观察到任何污染物对人类有显著健康风险。本研究结果为华北平原农业灌溉区地下水污染物的发生、分布和暴露风险提供了重要见解。
