Understanding the extent of emerging contaminants in english soils: Environmental implications of differing organic waste applications

The application of differing organic fertilisers to agricultural land is a long-standing practice that supports sustainable nutrient recycling. Despite the widespread use of organic amendments, the occurrence, distribution and fate of Emerging Contaminants (ECs), within agricultural soils remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge-gap, this study presents a comprehensive assessment of ECs across 22 English farms with diverse amendment histories and soil types. We evaluated and developed both a harmonised in-field sampling strategy alongside targeted and non-targeted mass spectrometry approaches, to reveal the presence of a wide range of ECs in soils. The antiparasitic ivermectin had the highest reported concentrations (21.8 ± 7.3–105.9 ± 86.7 ng/g (dw)), followed by the antibiotics oxytetracycline, ofloxacin, enrofloxacin, and plant protection products atrazine, and diazinon. Non-target screening identified 524 chemical entities, 194 were singular occurrences. Prevalent contaminant classes included pharmaceuticals, plasticisers, polymers, fungicides and surfactants; > 40 % of these had not been previously detected in English soils. Dominant pharmaceuticals included antibiotics (n = 9), steroids (n = 4), anticancer (n = 3), and antipsychotic metabolites (n = 3). Here we present a feasible, and accurate approach to soil sampling – analyses which reflects accurate concentrations in field, in addition to the wide-spread occurrence of ECs in English agricultural soils receiving an array of organic fertilisers.