health risk assessment of vegetables and garden soil contaminated with pharmaceutical residues from irrigation water

Abstract

The perseverance of pharmaceuticals in water has led to their occurrence in the agroecosystem potentially posing significant human health risks. This study examined the presence of efavirenz, ibuprofen, naproxen, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim in river water, garden soils, cabbage, and spinach. Ultrasound-assisted extraction and solid phase extraction techniques were used to prepare solid and aqueous samples, respectively, before LC-qTOF-MS analysis. The sample preparation methods gave 79–119% recoveries upon validation. The method quantification limits for aqueous and solid samples were 0.07–5.4 ng/L and 0.28–25.3 ng/kg, respectively. The study detected efavirenz (2–181 ng/L), ibuprofen (34–460 ng/L), naproxen (