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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Biological Risks of Waste Water for Irrigation
ClearTreated wastewater irrigation: unlocking sustainability in agriculture and food security—a comprehensive review
This comprehensive review explores treated wastewater as an alternative irrigation source for agriculture in water-scarce regions. While treated wastewater can improve soil fertility and crop growth, the review notes concerns about contaminants including microplastics that can accumulate in soil and potentially enter the food chain, emphasizing the need for effective treatment technologies.
Mitigating risks and maximizing sustainability of treated wastewater reuse for irrigation
This review examines the benefits and risks of using treated wastewater for crop irrigation, drawing heavily on Israel's experience as a world leader in this practice. While treated wastewater is a valuable water source, it can contain emerging contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and pathogens that may affect soil health, crops, and human health. The authors call for better policies and global data sharing to ensure safe reuse of wastewater in agriculture.
Impact of Wastewater on the Soil–Plant–Atmosphere Interface: Challenges and Remediation Approaches
This review examines the wide-ranging impacts of using wastewater for agricultural irrigation, covering effects on soil health, crop safety, and greenhouse gas emissions. Among the many concerns discussed, microplastics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria emerging from wastewater reuse are flagged as growing threats requiring better monitoring and policy responses. For readers interested in microplastics, the paper highlights how irrigation with wastewater is one of the pathways by which plastic particles enter farmland soils and ultimately the food chain.
Phytotoxic Effects of Treated Wastewater Used for Agricultural Irrigation On Root Hydraulic Conductivity and Plant Growth
This study tested whether treated municipal wastewater used for crop irrigation harms plants, finding effects on root water transport and growth. Treated wastewater often contains microplastics and plastic-associated chemicals, and irrigating with it may be a pathway for these contaminants to enter food crops.
Interactive effects of microplastics, heavy metals, and soil microecology under different irrigation water sources
Researchers found that using a mix of river water and treated wastewater to irrigate crops led to the highest levels of tiny plastic particles (microplastics) in soil, along with increased amounts of heavy metals like lead and chromium. These microplastics appear to help these harmful metals stick around in the soil rather than being naturally filtered out. This matters because these pollutants could potentially make their way into the food we eat, though more research is needed to understand the health risks.
Sustainable wastewater reuse for agriculture
Researchers reviewed the potential of treating and reusing wastewater for agricultural irrigation, noting that while less than 20% of the world's wastewater is currently treated, advanced systems could provide a stable, energy-generating water supply for farming. The main hurdle is that current treatment technologies cannot fully remove all emerging chemical contaminants, including microplastics, which may affect crops and human health.
Co-contaminant risks in water reuse and biosolids application for agriculture
This review highlights that treated wastewater and biosolids used in farming contain a complex mixture of pollutants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria that enter soil and can be taken up by crops. The combined effects of these pollutants may be greater than the sum of their individual risks, underscoring the need for better safety assessments of recycled water and waste used in food production.
Treated Wastewater as an Irrigation Source in South Africa: A Review of Suitability, Environmental Impacts, and Potential Public Health Risks
This review evaluates the suitability of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation in South Africa, examining both benefits and risks. The study found that while treated wastewater can improve soil nutrients and fertility, elevated levels of salts, heavy metals, and microplastics from insufficient treatment processes may pose significant environmental and public health risks.
Microplastics in wastewaters and their potential effects on aquatic and terrestrial biota
This review of over 200 studies found that microplastics from wastewater are contaminating both aquatic and land environments, especially when treated wastewater or sewage sludge is used for irrigation. The microplastics can harm fish, soil organisms, plants, and microbial communities, and they serve as carriers for other toxic pollutants. The findings highlight that wastewater is a major pathway through which microplastics reach farmland and, ultimately, human food and drinking water.
Greywater Reuse: Contaminant Profile, Health Implications, and Sustainable Solutions
This review examines the safety of reusing household greywater (from laundry, bathing, and dishes) and finds it contains a wide range of contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and pathogens. The authors highlight that microplastics from synthetic clothing fibers are especially common in laundry greywater. Reusing this water for irrigation or other purposes without proper treatment could introduce microplastics and other harmful substances into soil and food crops.
Uptake of Emerging Contaminants and Pathogens by Plants: Use and Impact of Wastewater
This review examines how emerging contaminants—including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and pathogens—are taken up by plants irrigated with treated wastewater. The authors find that plant uptake depends on root morphology, contaminant properties, and treatment level, and conclude that risks to food safety from wastewater reuse remain insufficiently characterized.
Sewage sludge as a sustainable fertilizer: Promise, pitfalls, and future directions
This review examines both the promise and pitfalls of using sewage sludge as a fertilizer, finding that while it reduces agrochemical costs and provides nutrients for crops, it also introduces microplastics, pathogens, and heavy metals into agricultural soils with implications for food safety and public health.
Potential for nutrients reuse, carbon sequestration, and CO2 emissions reduction in the practice of domestic and industrial wastewater recycling into agricultural soils: A review
This review examines the practice of recycling treated wastewater and sewage sludge as agricultural irrigation and fertilizer, assessing both the benefits of nutrient reuse and the risks from contaminants. While recycled wastewater can provide valuable nutrients and help reduce carbon emissions, it also introduces pollutants including microplastics into farm soil. The review highlights the need to balance the environmental benefits of wastewater reuse with the potential health risks from microplastic and chemical contamination of food crops.
Looking into the effects of co-contamination by micro(nano)plastics in the presence of other pollutants on irrigated edible plants
This review examines the combined effects of micro- and nanoplastics with other pollutants found in treated wastewater used for crop irrigation. Researchers analyzed 19 studies and found that the joint exposure to plastics and contaminants like heavy metals or pesticides often produced different toxicity outcomes than either pollutant alone. The findings suggest that using reclaimed wastewater for irrigation may expose food crops to complex mixtures of pollutants whose combined effects are still poorly understood.
Low-Quality Irrigation Water Treated Using Waste Biofilters
This paper is not about microplastics — it tests low-energy bioreactor systems for treating low-quality irrigation water on farms.
Evaluation of vermifilter-treated domestic wastewater for irrigation and fertigation: opportunities and challenges for implementation
Researchers evaluated whether wastewater treated through vermifiltration could be safely reused for agricultural irrigation. They found that while the system effectively removed most organic micropollutants with 91% average efficiency, the effluent still required additional disinfection and treatment to meet irrigation safety standards, particularly for E. coli levels. The study also detected microplastics in the treated effluent, highlighting the need for further post-treatment steps before agricultural reuse.
Long-term agricultural reuse of treated wastewater and sewage sludge: developing a Time to Critical Content Index for metal species
Researchers reviewed long-term effects of treated wastewater and sewage sludge reuse in agriculture, developing a framework to assess microplastic and contaminant accumulation in soils and crops over repeated application cycles.
Waterborne contaminants in high intensity agriculture and plant production: A review of on-site and downstream impacts.
This review examined waterborne contaminants—including microplastics, pathogens, and agrochemicals—affecting plant production nurseries that rely on recycled irrigation water. It identified key on-site and off-site contamination risks and proposed management strategies to safeguard water quality in high-intensity plant production systems.
Current levels and composition profiles of microplastics in irrigation water
Microplastic concentrations and polymer types were characterized in irrigation water sources, finding widespread contamination that represents a direct pathway for microplastics to enter agricultural soils with every irrigation cycle. The findings highlight irrigation as an overlooked vector for microplastic transfer into food-producing environments.
Effects of long-term wastewater irrigation on microplastics pollution in agricultural soil
Researchers studied how long-term irrigation with treated wastewater affects microplastic levels in farmland soil in Turkey. They found that irrigated soils contained roughly twice as many microplastic particles as control soils, with fibers and films being the most common shapes. The study suggests that using treated wastewater for agriculture is a significant pathway for microplastic contamination of cropland.
Health effects associated with wastewater treatment, reuse, and disposal
This annual review summarizes 2018 research on health effects associated with wastewater treatment, water reuse, and sewage disposal, covering microbial risks, chemical contaminants, and emerging pollutants including microplastics. The review highlights ongoing concerns about how wastewater management practices influence both environmental quality and public health.
Effects of Irrigation Water Sources on Soil Fertility, Heavy Metal Accumulation in both Soil and Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Scientists found that rice grown with sewage water contains higher levels of heavy metals like cadmium, which can be harmful if eaten regularly. While this wastewater helps crops grow better by adding nutrients to soil, the toxic metals that build up in the rice could pose health risks to people who eat it. This research shows we need better monitoring of crops grown with recycled wastewater to keep our food supply safe.
Microplastics in Irrigation Systems: A Growing Threat to Agriculture Soil and Crop Plant
This review examines how microplastics enter agricultural soil through irrigation water, where they can degrade soil quality and harm plant growth. Microplastics from wastewater, plastic mulch, and contaminated water sources accumulate in farmland and can be taken up by crops. The study highlights a growing concern that irrigated agriculture may be a major pathway for microplastics to enter the human food supply.
Removal of Microplastic Pollution through Waste Water Treatment: A Review
This review examines how wastewater treatment plants reduce microplastic contamination, comparing biological and advanced treatment methods and highlighting that residual microplastics in sewage sludge applied to agricultural land remain a significant pathway for environmental release.