Journal of Hazardous Materials 260 (2013) 468–474 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Hazardous Materials jou rn al hom epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhazmat Column and batch tests of sulfonamide leaching from different types of soil Joanna Maszkowska a,∗ , Marta Kolodziejska a , Anna Bialk-Bieli ´ nska a , Wojciech Mrozik b,c , Jolanta Kumirska a , Piotr Stepnowski a , Richard Palavinskas d , Oliver Krüger e , Ute Kalbe e a Department of Environmental Analysis, Institute for Environmental and Human Health Protection, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdansk, ul. Sobieskiego 18, 80-952 Gdansk, Poland b Medical University of Gdansk, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Al. Gen. J. Hallera 107, 80-416 Gdansk, Poland c School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Cassie Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom d Federal Institute for Risk Assessment BfR, Thielallee 88-92, D-14195 Berlin, Germany e BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin, Germany h i g h l i g h t s • Determination of leaching behavior of 3 sulfonamides (SAs) in soil column tests. • Discussion of mobility evaluation of investigated SAs in different types of soil. • Assessment of possible permeation of SAs to groundwater and surface water. • Discussion the applicability of leaching tests to polar contaminants. • Comparing results obtained during column and batch tests. a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 21 February 2013 Received in revised form 30 April 2013 Accepted 25 May 2013 Available online 5 June 2013 Keywords: Sulfonamides Leaching Column test Batch test Soil a b s t r a c t Sulfonamides (SAs) and their metabolites present severe hazards to human health and the environment, mainly because of antibiotic resistance. Knowledge of their bioavailability, including their sorption to soils and their impact on the soil-groundwater pathway, is crucial to their risk assessment. Laboratory batch and column leaching tests are important tools for determining the release potential of contaminants from soil or waste materials. Batch and column tests were carried out with soils differing in particle size distribution, organic matter content and pH, each spiked with sulfonamides (sulfadimethoxine (SDM), sulfaguanidine (SGD), sulfisoxazole (SX)). In order to test the applicability of leaching tests to polar con- taminants batch and column tests were also compared. In the column tests, release was found to depend on the properties of both soil and sulfonamides. The fastest release was observed for coarse-grained soil with the smallest organic matter content (MS soil; 100% decrease in concentration until liquid-to- solid ratio (L/S) of 0.9 L kg -1 for all SAs). The slowest release was established for sulfadimethoxine (24.5% decrease in concentration until L/S 1.22 L kg -1 ). The results of the batch and column tests were compara- ble to a large extent, with slightly higher concentrations being obtained in the column test experiments of fine-grained soils with a high organic matter content. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The relatively low cost of sulfonamides (SAs) and their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity has made them the usual choice of antibiotics in animal breeding (i.e., feedstuff additives). Their large-scale use poses a real hazard to different environmental compartments and human health, mainly because of antibiotic ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 58 5235381; fax: +48 58 5235454. E-mail addresses: joanna.maszkowska@chem.univ.gda.pl, asiamaszkowska@tlen.pl (J. Maszkowska). resistance phenomena. The genes responsible for such resistance may be transferred from non-pathogenic bacteria to those that do cause disease, leading to clinically significant antibiotic resis- tance [1,2]. Many of the antibiotics used in animal husbandry are identical or closely related to those used to prevent infections among humans; they include tetracyclines, macrolides, bacitracin, penicillins and sulfonamides. Thus, the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections observed in clinical practice stems from antibiotic use in both human and veterinary medicine. Generally, medicines are excreted as the parent compounds or their metabolites. Only small amounts of sulfonamides are metab- olized immediately after administration [3], but up to 90% are 0304-3894/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.05.053