The use of fertilizers in greenhouse-grown crops can pose a threat to groundwater quality and, consequently, to human beings and subterranean ecosystem, where intensive farming produces pollutants leaching. Albenga plain (Liguria, Italy) is an alluvial area of about 45 km² historically devoted to farming. Recently the crops have evolved to greenhouses horticulture and floriculture production. In the area high levels of nitrates in groundwater have been detected.

Lysimeters with three types of reconstituted soils (loamy sand, sandy clay loam and sandy loam) collected from different areas of Albenga plain were used in this study to evaluate the leaching loss of nitrate (NO₃⁻) over a period of 12 weeks. Leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) was selected as a representative green-grown crop. Each of the soil samples was treated with a slow release fertilizer, simulating the real fertilizing strategy of the tillage. In order to estimate the potential risk for aquifers as well as for organisms exposed via pore water, nitrate concentrations in groundwater were evaluated by applying a simplified attenuation model to the experimental data. Results were refined and extended from comparison of single effects and exposure values (Tier I level) up to the evaluation of probabilistic distributions of exposure and related effects (Tier II, III IV levels).

HHRA suggested HI >1 and about 20% probability of exceeding RfD for all the greenhouses, regardless of the soil. ERA suggested HQ > 100 for all the greenhouses; 93% probability of PNEC exceedance for greenhouses containing sand clay loam. The probability of exceeding LC50 for 5% of the species was about 40% and the probability corresponding to DBQ of DEC/EC50 > 0.001 was >90% for all the greenhouses. The significantly high risk, related to the detected nitrate leaching loss, can be attributed to excessive and inappropriate fertigation strategies.

在温室种植的农作物中使用化肥可能对地下水质量，进而对人类和地下生态系统构成威胁，因为集约化农业会造成污染物的淋溶。阿尔本加平原（意大利利古里亚）是一个约45 km ²的冲积区，历史上专门用于农业。最近，农作物已经发展为温室园艺和花卉栽培。在该地区，地下水中的硝酸盐含量很高。

与来自阿尔本平原的不同区域收集三种类型的重构的土壤（壤质砂土，砂质粘壤土和沙壤土）渗漏测定计在该研究中使用来评估硝酸盐（NO的淋失₃ ^- ）在12周的时间。叶生菜（莴苣L.）被选为代表性的绿色作物。每个土壤样品都用缓释肥料处理，模拟了耕作的真正施肥策略。为了估算含水层以及通过孔隙水暴露的生物的潜在风险，通过将简化衰减模型应用于实验数据来评估地下水中的硝酸盐浓度。对结果进行了细化和扩展，从单项效应和暴露值的比较（I级水平）一直到评估暴露和相关效应的概率分布（II级，III IV级）。

HHRA提出，无论土壤如何，所有温室的HI均大于1，且超过RfD的概率约为20％。ERA建议所有温室的HQ> 100；对于含有砂壤土的温室，PNEC超出概率为93％。在所有温室中，有5％的物种超过LC50的概率约为40％，与DEC / EC50> 0.001的DBQ相对应的概率为> 90％。与检测到的硝酸盐浸出损失有关的极高风险可归因于过度和不适当的施肥策略。