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Pharmaceutical Field Trials
A cold and rainy day in October marked a momentous event: the final lettuce harvest for our pharmaceutical research trials. This research has been ongoing (off and on) since 2014 in collaboration with our partners at the University of Michigan and University at Buffalo, and is now concluded! In this final year, we conducted two experiments:
- A soil incubation study in the lab, taking a close look at what happens to pharmaceuticals from urine when the urine is applied to soil
- A field study looking at the fate of pharmaceuticals applied to a fall lettuce crop. For this trial we measured pharmaceuticals in lettuce leaves, in soil at 3 different depths, and in the leach water underneath the crops.
For both trials, we used “worst-case scenario” levels of pharmaceuticals in urine, based on the highest rates that might reasonably be expected in a urine collection program. We also used a new method to cross-check and give greater confidence to our results. The final samples are still being analyzed in the lab in Buffalo, but we are looking forward to finally publishing results from these many years of research – stay tuned.
