Issue 12, 2022

Chemicals/materials of emerging concern in farmlands: sources, crop uptake and potential human health risks

Abstract

Certain chemicals/materials that are contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have been widely detected in water bodies and terrestrial systems worldwide while other CECs occur at undetectable concentrations. The primary sources of CECs in farmlands are agricultural inputs, such as wastewater, biosolids, sewage sludge, and agricultural mulching films. The percent increase in cropland area during 1950–2016 was 30 and the rise in land use for food crops during 1960–2018 was 100–500%, implying that there could be a significant CEC burden in farmlands in the future. In fact, the alarming concentrations (μg kg−1) of certain CECs such as PBDEs, PAEs, and PFOS that occur in farmlands are 383, 35 400 and 483, respectively. Also, metal nanoparticles are reported even at the mg kg−1 level. Chronic root accumulation followed by translocation of CECs into plants results in their detectable concentrations in the final plant produce. Thus, there is a continuous flow of CECs from farmlands to agricultural produce, causing a serious threat to the terrestrial food chain. Consequently, CECs find their way to the human body directly through CEC-laden plant produce or indirectly via the meat of grazing animals. Thus, human health could be at the most critical risk since several CECs have been shown to cause cancers, disruption of endocrine and cognitive systems, maternal–foetal transfer, neurotoxicity, and genotoxicity. Overall, this comprehensive review provides updated information on contamination of chemicals/materials of concern in farmlands globally, sources for their entry, uptake by crop plants, and their likely impact on the terrestrial food chain and human health.

Graphical abstract: Chemicals/materials of emerging concern in farmlands: sources, crop uptake and potential human health risks

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
03 aug 2022
Accepted
01 nov 2022
First published
04 nov 2022

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2022,24, 2217-2236

Chemicals/materials of emerging concern in farmlands: sources, crop uptake and potential human health risks

N. R. Maddela, B. Ramakrishnan, A. A. Dueñas-Rivadeneira, K. Venkateswarlu and M. Megharaj, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2022, 24, 2217 DOI: 10.1039/D2EM00322H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements