TA5 Ecotoxicity and Environmental Chemistry of Antibiotics
Room 17A/B, Level 4
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Chair: Aga, Diana ,
(209) Antibiotic mobility in soils.
Figueroa, Raquel1, Seremet, Daniel1, Leonard, Allison1, Jones, Aaryn 2, Vasudevan, Dharni2, Mackay, Allison1, 1 Environmental Engineering Program, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA2 Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
ABSTRACT- The release of manure slurries from confined animal feeding operations constitutes one of the most concentrated sources of antibiotics to the environment. The sorption of tetracycline antibiotics to model soil components (clays, oxides, and organic matter) were investigated to assess which sorptive interactions control the transport of antibiotics through soil. For all sorbents, sorption coefficients were sensitive to soil pH and ionic strength due to the amphoteric characteristics of tetracycline compounds. Sorption coefficients of oxytetracycline at pH 5.5 and ionic strength of 10 mM were of comparable magnitude: 1740 L/kg for montmorillonite, 340 L/kg for hematite and 670 L/kg for humic acid. The extent to which each sorption interaction contributes to overall tetracycline mobility in a given soil will depend upon the relative fractions of clay, oxide and organic matter present.
Key words: sorption, antibiotic