This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on the fate and interaction of pharmaceuticals in soil-crop systems. It addresses the principles of their transport, uptake and metabolism and reviews methodologies for their analytical determination. It also discusses ecotoxicological effects arising from their presence and highlights bioremediation approaches for their removal. The use of treated wastewater to irrigate crops is becoming more widespread in regions where freshwater is limited. This practice conserves freshwater resources and contributes to nutrient recycling. However, concerns remain regarding the safety of irrigation with treated wastewater since it contains residues of pharmaceuticals that have survived treatment, which means that soil and fauna are potentially exposed to these xenobiotics. Various pathways govern the fate of pharmaceuticals in crop-soil systems, including soil degradation; formation of non-extractable residues; uptake by soil-dwelling organisms (e.g. earthworms); and uptake, transport, and metabolism in agricultural crops. Investigations into these aspects have only recently been initiated, and there is still a long way to go before a meaningful assessment of the impact of wastewater has been completed.

"Analysis, Removal, Effects and Risk of Pharmaceuticals in the Water Cycle" provides an overview of the current analytical methods for trace determination of pharmaceuticals in environmental samples. The book also reviews the fate and occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the water cycle for their elimination in wastewater and drinking water treatment, focusing on the newest developments in treatment technologies, such as membrane bioreactors and advanced oxidation processes.

Pharmaceutically active substances are a class of new, so-called emerging contaminants that have raised great concern in recent years. Human and veterinary drugs are continuously being released into the environment mainly as a result of the manufacturing processes, the disposal of unused or expired products, and via excreta. The analytical methodology for the determination of trace pharmaceuticals in complex environmental matrices is still evolving, and the number of methods described in the literature has grown considerably. This volume leads the way, keeping chemistry students, toxicologists, engineers, wastewater managers and related professionals current with developments in this quickly evolving area.
Covers the latest developments in trace determinationsConcise and critical compilation of the recent literature Focuses on new treatment technologies

Applications of Time-of-Flight and Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry in Environmental, Food, Doping, and Forensic Analysis deals with the use of high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) in the analysis of small organic molecules. Over the past few years, time-of-flight (ToF) and Orbitrap MS have both experienced tremendous growth in a great number of analytical sectors and are now well established in many laboratories where high requirements are placed on analytical performance. This book gives a head-to-head comparison of these two technologies that compete directly with each other. As users with hands-on experience in both techniques, the authors provide a balanced description of the strengths and weaknesses of both techniques. In the vast majority of cases, ToF-MS and Orbitrap-MS have been used for qualitative purposes, mainly identification of discrete molecular entities such as drug metabolites or transformation products of environmental contaminants. This paradigm is now changing as quantitative capabilities are increasingly being explored, as are non-target approaches for unbiased broad-scope screening. In view of the continuous innovation of high-resolution MS instrument manufacturers in designing and developing more powerful machines, technological advances in both hardware and software are considerable, with many novel applications. This book summarizes and analyzes these trends. The compilation of selected examples from diverse analytical fields will allow the readers to discover not only the potential of high-resolution MS in their sector, but also shows advances in other fields that rely on hi-res MS.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on the fate and interaction of pharmaceuticals in soil-crop systems. It addresses the principles of their transport, uptake and metabolism and reviews methodologies for their analytical determination. It also discusses ecotoxicological effects arising from their presence and highlights bioremediation approaches for their removal. The use of treated wastewater to irrigate crops is becoming more widespread in regions where freshwater is limited. This practice conserves freshwater resources and contributes to nutrient recycling. However, concerns remain regarding the safety of irrigation with treated wastewater since it contains residues of pharmaceuticals that have survived treatment, which means that soil and fauna are potentially exposed to these xenobiotics. Various pathways govern the fate of pharmaceuticals in crop-soil systems, including soil degradation; formation of non-extractable residues; uptake by soil-dwelling organisms (e.g. earthworms); and uptake, transport, and metabolism in agricultural crops. Investigations into these aspects have only recently been initiated, and there is still a long way to go before a meaningful assessment of the impact of wastewater has been completed.