Research

Carbamazepine levels among healthy Israeli population

PIs, Ora Paltiel and Yehoshua Maor

The main goal of this project is to evaluate people’s exposure to carbamazepine via the consumption of vegetables irrigated with reclaimed wastewater. To accomplish this goal we will recruit volunteers who will, over a 10 day period, consumed standardized daily portions of vegetables provided by farmers who grow crops irrigated with reclaimed wastewater. We are currently conducting experiments with dairy cows from project #2. This will enable us to determine the limits of detection and quantitation of carbamazepine in different biological matrices (e.g., plasma and urine). The results will inform the measurement among human volunteers. Yehoshua Maor is a postdoctoral fellow coordinating CEAEH and also a co-PI in this project.

Follow up study: Carbamazepine levels in urine of healthy Israeli volunteers belonging to Special populations

Ora Paltiel, Naama Golan and Benny Chefetz

Abstract: In the first phase of this study, we demonstrated that healthy individuals consuming treated wastewater-irrigated produce excreted carbamazepine and its metabolites in their urine, while among subjects consuming fresh water-irrigated produce levels were undetectable or significantly lower. The carbamazepine metabolite pattern at this low exposure level differed from that observed at therapeutic doses (Paltiel et al., 2016). This "proof of concept" study demonstrated that human exposure to xenobiotics occurs through ingestion of treated wastewater-irrigated produce. Based on the above-mentioned findings, we aim to expand the survey and measure urine carbamazepine levels, in special populations who may be at particular risk of exposure to pharmaceuticals from the agro-environment - children, elderly individuals, vegetarians and vegans and pregnant women. Study team: Prof. Ora altiel – Principal investigator for the study. Prof. Benny Chefetz – Co-investigator for the study. Dr. Naama Golan, a second-year postdoctoral fellow – Recruiting subjects, sample and data collection, sample analysis. Dr. (MD) Michael Schapira, MPH student – Data analysis. Vered Mordechay, a BSc degree student – Analytical methods development. Noam Kirshenbaum, a third-year PhD student – Analytical methods development.