Saccharin and Other Artificial Sweeteners in Soils: Estimated Inputs from Agriculture and Households, Degradation, and Leaching to Groundwater

Abstract

Artificial sweeteners are consumed in substantial quantities as sugar substitutes and were previously shown to be ubiquitously present in the aquatic environment. The sweetener saccharin is also registered as additive in piglet feed. Saccharin fed to piglets was largely excreted and, consequently, found in liquid manure at concentrations up to 12 mg/L, where it was stable during 2 months of storage. Saccharin may thus end up in soils in considerable quantities with manure. Furthermore, other studies showed that saccharin is a soil metabolite of certain sulfonylurea herbicides. Sweeteners may also get into soils via irrigation with wastewater-polluted surface water, fertilization with sewage sludge (1-43 μg/L), or through leaky sewers. In soil incubation experiments, cyclamate, saccharin, acesulfame, and sucralose were degraded with half-lives of 0.4-6 d, 3-12 d, 3-49 d, and 8-124 d, respectively. The relative importance of entry pathways to soils was compared and degradation and leaching to groundwater were evaluated with computer simulations. The data suggest that detection of saccharin in groundwater (observed concentrations, up to 0.26 μg/L) is most likely due to application of manure. However, elevated concentrations of acesulfame in groundwater (up to 5 μg/L) may result primarily from infiltration of wastewater-polluted surface water through stream beds.

Emerging organic contaminants in groundwater: A review of sources, fate and occurrence

“…While for many pharmaceuticals there are multiple sources in the environment globally, it is still possible to elucidate source terms on a local or sub-regional scale (e.g. Clara et al, 2004;Buerge et al, 2009Buerge et al, , 2011. The following sections critically review pollution of groundwater resources by EOCs from key point and diffuse sources.…”

“…Sarmah et al (2006) reviewed the occurrence and fate of veterinary antibiotics in the environment and reported the occurrence of a range of veterinary antimicrobials at low concentrations in groundwater which were attributed to agricultural practices including the application of manure. Buerge et al (2011) reported the occurrence of saccharin in groundwater at a pumping station in Switzerland, with concentrations up to 260 ng/L, after application of pig manure despite the fact that biological mineralisation in soil was rapid (90% after two months incubation).…”

“…Examples of diffuse source pollution include agricultural runoff from bio-solids and manure sources, storm-water and urban runoff, leakage from reticulated urban sewerage systems and diffuse aerial deposition (e.g. Leister and Baker 1994;Knoth et al, 2003; Schmid et al, 2004;Terry et al, 2008;Vulliet et al, 2008;Nakada et al, 2008;Buerge et al, 2011). These sources of pollution can be characterised as: i) covering larger geographical scales, ii) having generally lower environmental loading compared to point sources, iii) having higher potential for natural attenuation in the soil and subsurface, iv) and are poorly defined with less direct/obvious links back to the 'polluter', as such they continue to be a real challenge to monitor, regulate and assess their impact on groundwater resources.…”

Emerging Organic Contaminants in Groundwater

“…The presence of pharmaceuticals in groundwater beneath or downgradient of a landfill has been confirmed by several authors [143][144][145][146]. Two recent studies [99,147] investigating the occurrence of groundwater down gradient of landfills detected a range of industrial compounds (detergents, antioxidants, fire retardants, plasticisers) as well as pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, barbiturates), caffeine and the nicotine metabolite cotinine.…”

“…Halogenated hydrocarbons (perflurochemicals and polychlorinated alkanes) can be important groundwater contaminants due to their relatively high concentrations in sludge and high solubility [97]. Veterinary antibiotics, antimicrobials and saccharin have all been reported from soil manure applications [98][99][100].…”