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.
The controlled biodegradation of ametryn and methomyl has been performed, in accordance with the OECD Zahn-Wellens/EMPA procedure, by use of an enriched mixture of activated sludge collected from three domestic waste-water-treatment plants (WWTP). During the process concentrations of ametryn and methomyl in the water samples were isolated by solid-phase extraction (SPE); recovery rates were 98.9 and 93.2 for methomyl and ametryn, respectively. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to determine final pesticide concentrations and for metabolite identification. The efficiency of aerobic biodegradation of ametryn and methomyl was evaluated by measuring both the decrease in the concentration of the pesticides and global properties such as the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The acute toxicity of ametryn and methomyl was evaluated by use of the ToxAlert100 biological test, which is based on inhibition of the bioluminescence of Vibrio fischeri. There was significant correlation between results from primary and ultimate biodegradation and those from determination of toxicity. Pesticide concentrations were always reduced to below the limit of detection in less than 17 days. High COD removal (90-96%) was achieved in 28 and 18 days for methomyl and ametryn, respectively.
Phytate is an important antinutritional component of legume seeds, which chelates minerals that are essential to the human diet such as iron and zinc. Phytate levels are often correlated with total seed phosphorus (P). The objective of this research was to evaluate quantitative trait loci (QTL) for seed P and phytate content in an inter‐gene pool (G2333 × G19839) recombinant inbred line population of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) planted at medium and high levels of soil P in randomized complete block experiments. Seed P and phytate content were quantified with spectrophotometric methods based on acid digestion with molybdenum blue and Wade reagents, respectively, and net seed P and net phytate content were calculated on a per‐seed basis using seed weights for each experiment. Total seed P varied from 2.8 to 6.1 g kg−1 and phytates varied from 0.29 to 1.78% across fertilization levels. A total of six QTL were found for total or net seed P, while three were found for percentage or net seed phytates. The QTL for seed P and percent phytates were located independently on linkage groups B2 and B11 vs. B6, respectively. Meanwhile, the QTL for net seed P or phytate content were related to seed weight QTL on linkage groups B6, B7, and B10, with one additional net phytate QTL on B5. The results suggest that bean plants can adapt to different initial supplies of P and that seed P and phytate levels in common bean can be modified through plant breeding.
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