A first screening and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and additives in personal care products in waste water, sludge, recipient water and sediment from Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland

Huber, Sandra; Remberger, Mikael; Kaj, Lennart; Schlabach, Martin; Jörundsdóttir, Hrönn Ólína; Vester, Jette; Arnórsson, Mímir; Mortensen, Inge; Schwartson, Richard; Dam, Maria

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.063

Cited by 84 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…About 30 years ago, pharmaceuticals consisting of organic compounds that disturb human health and marine ecosystems were identified in the environment [4,[6][7][8][9][10][11]. To date, a large number of studies showed the presence of pharmaceuticals in water bodies such as in groundwater [12,13], surface water [8,12], aquatic and coastline environments [13], and recipient water, sludge, and wastewater [14]. Most of the research in this area was performed in North America, China, and Europe [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disposal Practices of Unused and Leftover Medicines in the Households of Dhaka Metropolis

et al. 2021

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Background: This fact-finding study aimed to attain an overall idea and knowledge about medicine disposal practices in Dhaka Metropolitan households. Methods: This mixed study (both quantitative and qualitative) was orchestrated to inspect the household leftover medicine disposal pattern’s governing status. A cross-sectional survey was conducted following a structured questionnaire and key informant interview with a household person and in-depth interviews with the top pharmaceutical and government officials. Results: Findings disclose that, for most of the key informants, the terms “drug disposal” and “drug pollution” were unknown; more precisely, 67% and 74% of key informants even did not hear these two terms. Almost all (87%) households faced undesired incidents due to the insecure storage of medicines. People disposed of excess and expired medication in regular dustbins (47%), threw out of the window (19%), flushed within commode (4%), burnt in fire (2%), and reused (4%). A good percentage of people (21%) returned unexpired drugs to the pharmacy and bought other medicines on a need basis. A total of 72% wanted a medicine take-back program, and 100% agreed on mass education on this issue. Officials of pharmaceuticals conferred mixed opinion: top-ranked pharmaceuticals will adopt leftover medicine disposal practices; middle and low-ranked pharmaceutical companies are reluctant, merely denied mentioning the less important issue. Conclusions: The absence of mass awareness and standard laws and policies may explain these existing aberrant practices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disposal Practices of Unused and Leftover Medicines in the Households of Dhaka Metropolis

et al. 2021

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“…Sources of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment include waste water and sewage treatment plants (WWTPs), human excretion, washed off dermally applied products, landfill leaching, effluent from health care facilities and pharmaceutical industries and veterinary drug applications [6][7][8][9]. When released into the aquatic environment, they may be transported to other places or accumulate in sediments or tissues of aquatic organisms depending on the nature of the pharmaceuticals and the receiving water body [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The occurrence and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals have been studied in aquatic environments across the world [1,11,15,[22][23][24][25][26]. However, there is limited amount of data on pharmaceuticals in African water bodies [9,27,28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence and risk assessment of selected pharmaceuticals in water and sediments of Usuma Dam, Abuja, Nigeria

Ilechukwu

Okonkwo

Olusina

et al. 2021

International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry

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The occurrence and ecological risk associated with nine pharmaceuticals; Ciprofloxacin, Metronidazole, Amoxycillin, Trimethoprim, Tetracycline, Sulfamethoxazole, Ibuprofen, Diclofenac and Paracetamol were investigated in water and sediments of Usuma Dam, Abuja, Nigeria. The samples were extracted with solid phase extraction and analysed with high performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV/VIS detector (HPLC-UV/VIS). Metronidazole with a concentration range of 191.11-572.73 ng/L and Trimethoprim with a concentration range of 0.27-0.42 µg/g d.w. were the predominant antibiotics in the water and sediments respectively. Ibuprofen was the only analgesics detected in the samples. The ecological risk assessed with the worst observed data for each pharmaceutical in the samples showed that Amoxycillin and Ibuprofen pose a high toxic risk to aquatic life in the dam while Trimethoprim and Ciprofloxacin could result in medium ecological risk. The results of this study draw attention to the occurrence and ecological risks of pharmaceuticals to aquatic life.

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“…For the literature screening, the Google Scholar search engine [60] was used with the following keywords: sewage sludge, pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment, biosolids. Only recent studies from 2012 to 2019 with data from industrialised countries, with comparable pharmaceutical consumption and sewage treatment technology to the EU, were considered [61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. In the case of multiple detections of pharmaceuticals in different studies the maximum concentration was considered as worst-case assumption.…”

Section: Terrestrial Trigger Evaluation and Effect Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many APIs were reported, which have not been subjected to terrestrial assessment due to the fact that their K oc was below the trigger value. They were found in sewage sludge in quantifiable concentrations-especially APIs with high dosage and high market penetration like ibuprofen and diclofenac [6,63,64]. Finally, terrestrial risks were calculated particularly for hormones and antibiotics [6].…”

Section: Terrestrial Trigger Evaluation and Effect Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental fate and effects assessment of human pharmaceuticals: lessons learnt from regulatory data

et al. 2021

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Human pharmaceuticals are extensively studied and assessed before marketing approval. Since 2006, this also includes an assessment of environmental risks. In the European Union, this is based on the guideline on the environmental risk assessment of medicinal products for human use (EMEA/CHMP/SWP/4447/00 corr 2), which is currently under revision. For Germany, the German Environment Agency (UBA) is tasked with the evaluation of environmental risks of human pharmaceuticals. Applicants seeking approval of medicinal products need to submit fate and effect data, in case predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) exceed 10 ng/L in surface waters, or the substance is of specific concern through its mode of action or physico-chemical characteristics.Over the last decade, this regulatory work resulted in an internal agency database containing effect data on approximately 300 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). A considerable part of this data is currently not publicly available due to property rights held by the respective applicants. The database was evaluated to draw conclusions on how the current assessment approach may be improved.The evaluation of aquatic effect data shows considerable variation in ecotoxic effect concentrations, but supports the current use of 10 ng/L as PEC action limit. For endocrine-active substances and antibiotics, a clear sensitivity profile was observed, which allows a more targeted assessment in the future. The conclusions drawn from terrestrial effect data are less clear, as the database itself is biased because information is only available for substances with high sorption. Further adaptations of the terrestrial assessment strategy, including action triggers, appear necessary. Fate data show a high persistence of many APIs: approximately 43% of all APIs are classified as very persistent; 12% of these show DT50 values in a range where abiotic or biotic degradation is not expected.Overall, the evaluation has shown that improvements of the current guideline are possible.

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A first screening and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and additives in personal care products in waste water, sludge, recipient water and sediment from Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland

Cited by 84 publications

References 32 publications

Disposal Practices of Unused and Leftover Medicines in the Households of Dhaka Metropolis

Disposal Practices of Unused and Leftover Medicines in the Households of Dhaka Metropolis

Occurrence and risk assessment of selected pharmaceuticals in water and sediments of Usuma Dam, Abuja, Nigeria

Environmental fate and effects assessment of human pharmaceuticals: lessons learnt from regulatory data

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