Environmental behavior and analysis of veterinary and human drugs in soils, sediments and sludge

Abstract

Human and veterinary drugs are continually being released in the environment mainly as a result of manufacturing processes, disposal of unused or expired products, and excreta. Because of their physical and chemical properties, many of these substances or their bioactive metabolites end up in soils and sediments, where they can accumulate and induce adverse effects in terrestrial or aquatic organisms. Among these effects, bacterial resistance is increasingly observed and is caused by the extensive use of antibiotics in animal and fish farming and the growing practice of adding manure and sewage sludge to agricultural fields, which is of particular concern. Literature on the environmental analysis and occurrence of drugs has addressed a very small percentage of these compounds, so very little information is available about the fate and the potential effects of drugs in the environment. This article presents an overview of recent developments in the determination of veterinary and human drugs in solid environmental matrices, including soil, sediment and sludge. The analysis of pharmaceuticals in the such samples has always been carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to ultraviolet detection, and, to a lesser extent, to mass spectrometry and fluorescence detection. In most cases, sample pretreatment includes extraction of the solid sample and further purification of the extract by solid phase extraction with C18 sorbents. In addition to analytical articles, this overview includes papers concerning usage of drugs, as well as sources, fate, persistence, and effects of pharmaceuticals in solid environmental matrices.