Application of prioritization approaches to optimize environmental monitoring and testing of pharmaceuticals

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are ubiquitous in the natural environment with concentrations expected to rise as human population increases. Environmental risk assessments are available for a small portion of pharmaceuticals in use, raising concerns over the potential risks posed by other drugs that have little or no data. With >1900 active pharmaceutical ingredients in use, it would be a major task to test all of the compounds with little or no data. Desk-based prioritization studies provide a potential solution by identifying those substances that are likely to pose the greatest risk to the environment and which, therefore, need to be considered a priority for further study. The aim of this review was to (1) provide an overview of different prioritization exercises performed for pharmaceuticals in the environment and the results obtained; and (2) propose a new holistic risk-based prioritization framework for drugs in the environment. The suggested models to underpin this framework are discussed in terms of validity and applicability. The availability of data required to run the models was assessed and data gaps identified. The implementation of this framework may harmonize pharmaceutical prioritization efforts and ensure that, in the future, experimental resources are focused on molecules, endpoints, and environmental compartments that are biologically relevant.

Comparison of Prioritisation Schemes for Human Pharmaceuticals in the Aquatic Environment

“…For many of the compounds in this assessment, the ranking within each PEC scheme was correlated with the amount dispensed, which has also been found in other prioritisation studies (Ashton et al 2004; Roos et al 2012). Of the compounds which were ranked in the top 10 across all schemes, metformin, amoxicillin, naproxen and ibuprofen have previously occurred on many priority lists (Burns et al 2018b). Gabapentin and flucloxacillin have only been listed of concern in one prioritisation exercise each (Helwig et al 2013; Ortiz de García et al 2013) and, as a result, monitoring studies including these compounds are much lower.…”

“…Ibuprofen was ranked in the top 10 of all of schemes, with the exception of acute LC 50 . Ibuprofen is the fifth most prioritised compound in the prioritisation literature (Burns et al 2018b). The environmental impact of ibuprofen pollution has been the focus of many studies and its repeat presence on priority lists and high rankings in the current study indicate the importance in understanding its fate and effects.…”

Pesticide use data for emission modelling: A case study on the Upper Citarum River Basin

“…Unfortunately, this kind of data is not centrally available or difficult to obtain in many low-and middle-income countries like Indonesia. It's generally only available in other countries through expensive market research or at the national scale, which may not be representative of localized conditions [15].…”

Prioritization of pharmaceuticals in urban rivers: the case of oral contraceptives in the Belém River basin, Curitiba / PR, Brazil

“…As a result, the assessment of the environmental and health risks related to the presence of such residues, alone or in combination, is very difficult (Voogt et al, 2009;Riva et al, 2015). Nevertheless, studies globally have reported a variety of prioritization methods to control micropollutants in the waters based on different criteria (Daouk et al, 2015;Riva et al, 2015;Mansour et al, 2016;Aubakirova et al, 2017;Burns et al, 2018). Overall, the most important criteria considered by these methodologies have been: presence of the substance (assessed by consumption and identification in the environment); risk to environment or human health (tested for a range of organisms on various trophic levels); persistence in the environment (natural biodegradation and removal in wastewater treatment systems); and feasible monitoring (existing monitoring methods and appropriate equipment) (Helwig et al, 2013;Daouk et al, 2015;Mansour et al, 2016;Burns et al, 2018).…”

“…Prioritization efforts have been reported in North America, Europe, Australia, and East Asia (Voogt et al, 2009;Guo et al, 2016). However, most of these efforts have been concentrated in Europe and the United States (Al-Khazrajy and Boxall, 2016;Burns et al, 2018), where some pharmaceuticals already undergo systematic monitoring regulated by law and where more advanced proposals are being prepared to control their concentration in water.…”