Selected Pharmaceuticals in Different Aquatic Compartments: Part I—Source, Fate and Occurrence

Abstract

Potential risks associated with releases of human pharmaceuticals into the environment have become an increasingly important issue in environmental health. This concern has been driven by the widespread detection of pharmaceuticals in all aquatic compartments. Therefore, 22 pharmaceuticals, 6 metabolites and transformation products, belonging to 7 therapeutic groups, were selected to perform a systematic review on their source, fate and occurrence in different aquatic compartments, important issues to tackle the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The results obtained evidence that concentrations of pharmaceuticals are present, in decreasing order, in wastewater influents (WWIs), wastewater effluents (WWEs) and surface waters, with values up to 14 mg L−1 for ibuprofen in WWIs. The therapeutic groups which presented higher detection frequencies and concentrations were anti-inflammatories, antiepileptics, antibiotics and lipid regulators. These results present a broad and specialized background, enabling a complete overview on the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic compartments.

Selected Pharmaceuticals in Different Aquatic Compartments: Part II—Toxicity and Environmental Risk Assessment

“…The measured concentrations of some of the selected pharmaceuticals reported for surface water all over the world surpassed the concentrations here described for toxicity, which suggests that the aquatic biota could be vulnerable to the presence of pharmaceuticals in their environment, and that toxic effects are expected to occur with unexpected outcomes [146].…”

“…Using the occurrence data obtained from Part I of this review (Table S2, Supporting information) and the PNECs previously calculated (Table 2), RQs were deemed for all the selected pharmaceuticals in the different aquatic compartments and are presented in Figures 4-7 [146].…”

Special Issue “Pharmaceutical Residues in the Environment”

“…Apart from research papers, three interesting review articles [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] have been published in this Special Issue. Two of them were written by Pereira et al [ 10 , 11 ].…”

“…Apart from research papers, three interesting review articles [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] have been published in this Special Issue. Two of them were written by Pereira et al [ 10 , 11 ]. The first [ 10 ] tackled the source, fate and occurrence of 22 pharmaceuticals, six metabolites and transformation products belonging to seven therapeutic groups, in several aquatic compartments (wastewater influents and effluents, surface waters, groundwaters, seawaters, mineral waters and drinking waters).…”

“…Two of them were written by Pereira et al [ 10 , 11 ]. The first [ 10 ] tackled the source, fate and occurrence of 22 pharmaceuticals, six metabolites and transformation products belonging to seven therapeutic groups, in several aquatic compartments (wastewater influents and effluents, surface waters, groundwaters, seawaters, mineral waters and drinking waters). The second article [ 11 ] presents the issues of toxicity and the risk assessment of pharmaceuticals, using the occurrence data obtained in the first paper, highlighting and updating the current knowledge on this subject.…”