Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
This study concentrated on temporal distribution and species composition of phytoplankton connected with physicochemical variations between January 2003 and November 2004 in the South Western Caspian Sea. During the study, 75 phytoplankton were distinguished in total and average phytoplankton densities in 2003 and 2004 were 1.47×10 5 ±6.05×10 4 and 1.97×10 5 ±7.18×10 4 cells L-1 , respectively. Contributions of diatoms (66.0% in 2003; 57.0% in 2004) and cyanophytes to total phytoplankton (17.0 in 2003; 36.0% in 2004) were higher than any other group. Diatoms Dactyliosolen fragilissimus and Thalassionema nitzschioides, and cyanophytes Oscillatoria sp. and Anabeanopsis raciborskii provided the biggest contributions to the total phytoplankton. Average DIN concentration in 2003 was higher (3.86±1.65 µM) than the average in 2004 (3.37±1.13 µM). However, average DIP concentration in 2003 was lower (1.45±1.37 µM) than the average in 2004 (1.99±0.67 µM). Average DIS concentration was twofold higher than average DIN concentration. Average DIN:DIP without
Measurements of natural radioactivity levels and heavy metals in sediment and soil samples of the Anzali international wetland were carried out by two HPGe-gamma ray spectrometry and atomic absorption spectroscopy techniques. The concentrations of (235)U, (226)Ra, (232)Th, (40)K, and (137)Cs in sediment samples ranged between 1.05 ± 0.51-5.81 ± 0.61, 18.06 ± 0.63-33.36 ± .0.34, 17.57 ± 0.38-45.84 ± 6.23, 371.88 ± 6.36-652.28 ± 11.60, and 0.43 ± 0.06-63.35 ± 0.94 Bq/kg, while in the soil samples they vary between 2.36-5.97, 22.71-38.37, 29.27-42.89, 472.66-533, and 1.05-9.60 Bq/kg for (235)U, (226)Ra, (232)Th, (40)K, and (137)Cs, respectively. Present results are compared with the available literature data and also with the world average values. The radium equivalent activity was well below the defined limit of 370 Bq/kg. The external hazard indices were found to be less than 1, indicating a low dose. Heavy metal concentrations were found to decrease in order as Fe > Mn > Sr > Zn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Pb > Co > Cd. These measurements will serve as background reference levels for the Anzali wetland.
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