Soil and Pharmaceuticals: Contamination and Remediation Strategies

Pharmaceuticals have played an important role in the development of human society. However, the rise and indiscriminate use of drugs, such as antimicrobials, antivirals, anxiolytics, analgesics, and hormones in animal and human treatments are associated with the inefficiency of sewage treatment capacity for their removal, have resulted in increased detection of pharmaceuticals in environmental matrices. Soils are one of the biggest reservoirs of pharmaceuticals and may be contaminated via fertilization with contaminated manure, irrigation with contaminated water, or by the incorrect disposal of pharmaceutical wastes.

Once in the soil, pharmaceuticals may be degraded by biotic or abiotic processes, however, some of them are persistent and significant concentrations of those drugs have been found in soils. As a result of soil erosion, runoff or even through plant uptake, pharmaceuticals end up in the food chain causing ecotoxicological concerns, including the induction of antimicrobial resistance in microbes. Research and interest in the fate and toxicity of pharmaceuticals in soils have increased in the scientific community over the past decades. However, the pollution mechanisms, ecological and health risks, and the development of practical degradation and removal technologies from soil are still challenging. Firstly, it is still not clear how soil properties can affect the pharmaceuticals’ biogeochemical behavior; similarly, few studies have reported the ecological effects and interaction between pharmaceuticals and other abiotic factors such as temperature, light, or contaminants. Finally, the efficient removal technologies of pharmaceuticals from soil, especially using green methodologies are still lacking.

Based on that, this Research Topic aims to gather knowledge on pharmaceuticals in soils with an emphasis on pollution, risks, and control. Studies can acknowledge the occurrence, biogeochemistry,
potential ecotoxicological impacts, fate, and control of pharmaceuticals in soils.

This Research Topic includes, but is not limited to the following aspects:

1. Pollution characteristics, mechanisms, and modeling of pharmaceuticals in soils;

2. Effects of pharmaceuticals and/or their interactive effects, soil pollution, and climate factors on biota, including animals, plants, and microorganisms;

3. Fate of pharmaceuticals in soils;

4. Contamination control techniques.



All article types are welcome, with an emphasis on Original Research papers, Opinions, Perspectives, Hypotheses, Reviews, and Mini-Reviews.

Keywords: antimicrobials, soil contamination, phytoremediation, ecotoxicology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.