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Study: Veg grown with wastewater could have side effects

With water shortages rising worldwide, the practice of treating and reusing wastewater for agricultural and household use is growing. In Israel, for example, some 60% of water used in agriculture is reclaimed. But that practice might have a dark side: A new study shows that eating vegetables grown using reclaimed water boosts urine levels of carbamazepine, an anti-epileptic drug commonly detected in wastewater (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b06256).

The randomized, controlled study is the first to directly address exposure to such pharmaceutical contaminants in humans, says coauthor Ora Paltiel, a professor of hematology and epidemiology at the Hadassah-Hebrew University. “We were very surprised that the effect was so clear.