Antibiotic residues in the soil,; a threat to human health

Antibiotics play a key role in the management of infectious diseases in humans and animals all over the world. Because the majority of antibiotics are not completely metabolized in the bodies of humans and animals, a high percentage of administered drugs is discharged into water and soil, thus it is known as environmentally stable organic pollutants. Based on inherent stability to degradation, antibiotics have the large range of half-lives in soil, between <1 day and 10 years. The physiochemical properties of antibiotics, soil type and climatic factors (temperature, humidity, etc.) affect the degradation of antibiotics. The remainder of these compounds, as antimicrobial agents have negative effects on soil microbial communities and, in turn, on soil health. Finally, antibiotics can be entered to the food chain through their uptake by crops and lead to antibiotic resistance in humans. However, many ambiguous results indicate that precise assessment of the fate of antibiotics and the estimation of risk of human health due to antibiotic resistance is a great challenge. In this paper, the fate of antibiotics in soil (sorption and degradation), their impact on soil microbial community function, uptake by plants and the impact on human food security are reviewed.