Pollution of soil by pharmaceuticals: implications for metazoan and environmental health
File(s)annurev-pharmtox-030124-111214.pdf (684.91 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Zhang, Chubin
Barron, Leon P
Stürzenbaum, Stephen R
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The use of pharmaceuticals has grown substantially and their consequential release via wastewaters poses a potential threat to aquatic and terrestrial environments. While transportation prediction models for aquatic environments are well established, they cannot be universally extrapolated to terrestrial systems. Pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are, for example, readily detected in the excreta of terrestrial organisms (including humans). Furthermore, the trophic transfer of pharmaceuticals to and from food webs is often overlooked, which in turn highlights a public health concern and emphasizes the pressing need to elucidate how today's potpourri of pharmaceuticals affect the terrestrial system, their biophysical behaviors, and their interactions with soil metazoans. This review explores the existing knowledge base of pharmaceutical exposure sources, mobility, persistence, (bio)availability, (bio)accumulation, (bio)magnification, and trophic transfer of pharmaceuticals through the soil and terrestrial food chains.
Date Issued
2025-01-01
Date Acceptance
2024-09-01
Citation
Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 2025, 65 (1), pp.547-565
ISSN
0362-1642
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Start Page
547
End Page
565
Journal / Book Title
Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Volume
65
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2025 by the author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information.
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-030124-111214
Subjects
soil
pharmaceuticals
wastewater irrigation
biosolids
food chain
metabolism
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-09-03