Risk assessment for uptake and accumulation of pharmaceuticals by baby leaf lettuce irrigated with reclaimed water under commercial agricultural activities.

The use of reclaimed water to irrigate agricultural crops has increased in recent years as a consequence of water shortage constituting a potential risk for human health. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact on the soil-plant system and determining the accumulation of carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DCF), ketoprofen (KTP) and naproxen (NPX) in the edible part of lettuce under commonly used agricultural practices in commercial production. For this purpose, red oak baby lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) was irrigated with reclaimed water fortified with different concentrations of pharmaceuticals. The study was carried out in two different scenarios: soil and tray. The tray experiments were conducted with substrate and took place at three different seasons of the year. Lettuce tissue sampled from these experiments were analysed 3 times during the lettuce growing cycle (first, second and third harvest). The practices of first harvest regrowth were also evaluated. For all experiments, CBZ showed the highest accumulation in lettuce leaves of the pharmaceuticals tested, showing a correlation between irrigation exposure time and pharmaceutical uptake. Unexpectedly, DCF was the compound with the highest uptake levels after regrowth practices. Results suggested that pharmaceuticals uptake could be directly associated with the irrigation method and possible accumulation in soil and substrates, while concentration of pharmaceuticals in substrates were 10 times higher. Based on the concentration values detected in lettuce leaves, the risk assessment suggests that no compounds imply any risk to human health, except CBZ for those on vegetarian diets in the tray scenario. Although commercial agricultural practices are usually not considered with regards to risk reduction, in this experiment we demonstrated that climatic conditions are a key factor in pharmaceuticals uptake and different agricultural practices (soil cropping and drip irrigation) can limit the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in crops.

Suitability of different Escherichia coli enumeration techniques to assess the microbial quality of different irrigation water sources.

The use of fecal indicators such as Escherichia coli has been proposed as a potential tool to characterize microbial contamination of irrigation water. Recently, not only the type of microbial indicator but also the methodologies used for enumeration have been called into question. The goal of this study was to assess the microbial quality of different water sources for irrigation of zucchini plants by using E. coli as an indicator of fecal contamination and the occurrence of foodborne pathogens. Three water sources were evaluated including reclaimed secondary treated water (RW-2), reclaimed tertiary UV-C treated water (RW-3) and surface water (SW). The suitability of two E. coli quantification techniques (plate count and qPCR) was examined for irrigation water and fresh produce. E. coli levels using qPCR assay were significantly higher than that obtained by plate count in all samples of irrigation water and fresh produce. The microbial quality of water samples from RW-2 was well predicted by qPCR, as the presence of foodborne pathogens were positively correlated with high E. coli levels. However, differences in the water characteristics influenced the suitability of qPCR as a tool to predict potential contamination in irrigation water. No significant differences were obtained between the number of cells of E. coli from RW-2 and RW-3, probably due to the fact that qPCR assay cannot distinguish between viable and dead cells. These results indicated that the selection of the most suitable technique for enumeration of indicator microorganisms able to predict potential presence of fecal contamination might be influenced by the water characteristics.

[Cardiovascular risk factors in schoolchildren of the city of Cuenca]. / Factores de riesgo cardiovascular en escolares de la ciudad de Cuenca.

OBJECTIVE: To calculate the levels of different cardiovascular risk factors among 9 and 10 year old schoolchildren in the city of Cuenca. DESIGN: An observational crossover study (cross-sectional). SETTING: The community: three state schools in the city of Cuenca. PARTICIPANTS: 156 boys and 151 girls doing 4th and 5th year EGB (basic). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: As well as socio-demographic variables, the following anthropometric variables were determined: weight, height, body mass index (Khosla-Lowe index), systolic and diastolic blood pressure. After collecting samples of venous blood after 12 to 14 hours fasting, overall cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides were determined. The average levels of the lipidic parameters measured in mgrs/dl for men and women respectively were 182.4 and 187.2 for overall cholesterol, 110.9 and 117.0 for LDL-cholesterol, 60.9 and 58.1 for HDL-cholesterol and 53.4 and 61.3 for triglycerides. These differences were statistically significant in all the parameters except overall cholesterol. Neither the pressure levels nor the anthropometric variables showed significant differences between genders. CONCLUSIONS: The lipid levels found in our study for both for male and female schoolchildren display the highest cardiovascular risk levels yet observed in Spain. The blood pressure levels are also among the highest published in our country.