Water reuse in Brazilian rice farming: Application of semiquantitative microbiological risk assessment

Abstract

The current paper presented the Semiquantitative model for microbiological risk assessment for human health, in rice crop production in Brazil. For this purpose, initially, Microbiological Risk Assessment (SqMRA) was divided into four stages: 1) Identification of hazards; 2) Identification of exposure routes for different receptors; 3) Exposure scenarization; 4) Risk characterization. After that, the SqMRA was applied to rice farming in two scenarios, in which the first considers the effluent to be disinfected (Hazard 7), and the second considers the reality of sewage treatment conditions in Brazil (Hazard 9). Thus, it was observed that the reuse of water reuse can be applied in rice farming, with an acceptable global risk, to the receptors involved (farmer, consumer, and neighborhood). Although, it is necessary the relevance of disinfection to minimize the risk in any water reuse application is highlighted.