Microbial degradation of the pharmaceutical ibuprofen and the herbicide 2,4-D in water and soil - use and limits of data obtained from aqueous systems for predicting their fate in soil.

The persistence of chemicals is a key parameter for their environmental risk assessment. Extrapolating their biodegradability potential in aqueous systems to soil systems would improve the environmental impact assessment. This study compares the fate of (14/13)C-labelled 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and ibuprofen in OECD tests 301 (ready biodegradability in aqueous systems) and 307 (soil).