Characterization of the Nairobi River catchment impact zone and occurrence of pharmaceuticals: Implications for an impact zone inclusive environmental risk assessment

Bagnis, Simone; Boxall, Alistair; Gachanja, Anthony; Fitzsimons, Mark F.; Murigi, Martin; Snape, Jason; Tappin, Alan D.; Wilkinson, John; Comber, Sean

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134925

Cited by 43 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This is at odds with other studies, that have identified a trend towards ‘biotic homogenization’ (biodiversity becoming more homogenous) under increasing levels of urbanization (McKinney, 2006). This observation could be explained by the extreme variation in types of urban development seen in developing cities such as Nairobi—for example, the most densely populated settlements in the city are located along riparian areas, and on the edge of forests harbouring high levels of biodiversity (Bagnis et al., 2020; Furukawa et al., 2011). This juxtaposition of natural and artificial habitats argues against over‐simplifying the concept of urbanization, which is often described as occurring along a linear gradient.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio‐ecological drivers of vertebrate biodiversity and human‐animal interfaces across an urban landscape

Hassell

Bettridge

Ward

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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Urbanization can have profound impacts on the distributional ecology of wildlife and livestock, with implications for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human health. A wealth of studies have assessed biotic responses to urbanization in North America and Europe, but there is little empirical evidence that directly links human activities to urban biodiversity in the tropics. Results from a large‐scale field study conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, are used to explore the impact of human activities on the biodiversity of wildlife and livestock with which humans co‐exist across the city. The structure of sympatric wildlife, livestock and human populations are characterized using unsupervised machine learning, and statistical modelling is used to relate compositional variation in these communities to socio‐ecological drivers occurring across the city. By characterizing landscape‐scale drivers acting on these interfaces, we demonstrate that socioeconomics, elevation and subsequent changes in habitat have measurable impacts upon the diversity, density and species assemblage of wildlife, livestock and humans. Restructuring of wildlife and livestock assemblages (both in terms of species diversity and composition) has important implications for the emergence of novel diseases at urban interfaces, and we therefore use our results to generate a set of testable hypotheses that explore the influence of urban change on microbial communities. These results provide novel insight into the impact of urbanization on biodiversity in the tropics. An understanding of associations between urban processes and the structure of human and animal populations is required to link urban development to conservation efforts and risks posed by disease emergence to human health, ultimately informing sustainable urban development policy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio‐ecological drivers of vertebrate biodiversity and human‐animal interfaces across an urban landscape

Hassell

Bettridge

Ward

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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“…To fully understand the likely impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment on ecosystem health, it is essential to understand the concentrations that occur in the environment. Available monitoring data for APIs have previously been compared with ecotoxicological thresholds to quantify potential impacts in riverine systems (see Bagnis et al, 2020; Boxall et al, 2012; Hossain et al, 2018; Kelly & Brooks, 2019; Schafhauser et al, 2018; Topaz et al, 2020; Zhou et al, 2016). These studies have, however, tended to either consider the potential effects of multiple APIs in a single country (see Bagnis et al, 2020; Boxall et al, 2012; Topaz et al, 2020; Zhou et al, 2016) or explored the potential effects of single compounds across multiple countries (see Kelly & Brooks, 2019; Schafhauser et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Available monitoring data for APIs have previously been compared with ecotoxicological thresholds to quantify potential impacts in riverine systems (see Bagnis et al, 2020; Boxall et al, 2012; Hossain et al, 2018; Kelly & Brooks, 2019; Schafhauser et al, 2018; Topaz et al, 2020; Zhou et al, 2016). These studies have, however, tended to either consider the potential effects of multiple APIs in a single country (see Bagnis et al, 2020; Boxall et al, 2012; Topaz et al, 2020; Zhou et al, 2016) or explored the potential effects of single compounds across multiple countries (see Kelly & Brooks, 2019; Schafhauser et al, 2018). The studies that have considered multiple countries have mainly relied on published monitoring data, which are not necessarily comparable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Potential Ecotoxicological Effects of Pharmaceuticals in the World's Rivers

Bouzas-Monroy

Wilkinson

Melling

et al. 2022

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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During their production, use, and disposal, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are released into aquatic systems. Because they are biologically active molecules, APIs have the potential to adversely affect nontarget organisms. We used the results of a global monitoring study of 61 APIs alongside available ecotoxicological and pharmacological data to assess the potential ecotoxicological effects of APIs in rivers across the world. Approximately 43.5% (461 sites) of the 1052 sampling locations monitored across 104 countries in a recent global study had concentrations of APIs of concern based on apical, nonapical, and mode of action–related endpoints. Approximately 34.1% of the 137 sampling campaigns had at least one location where concentrations were of ecotoxicological concern. Twenty‐three APIs occurred at concentrations exceeding “safe” concentrations, including substances from the antidepressant, antimicrobial, antihistamine, β‐blocker, anticonvulsant, antihyperglycemic, antimalarial, antifungal, calcium channel blocker, benzodiazepine, painkiller, progestin, and lifestyle compound classes. At the most polluted sites, effects are predicted on different trophic levels and on different endpoint types. Overall, the results show that API pollution is a global problem that is likely negatively affecting the health of the world's rivers. To meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, work is urgently needed to tackle the problem and bring concentrations down to an acceptable level. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:2008–2020. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

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“…Pharmaceuticals belonging to diverse therapeutic classes have been detected in different environmental compartments such as surface water, groundwater, soil, and even drinking water, posing potential short‐ and long‐term risks for flora, fauna, and humans (Dhar et al 2019; Godoy et al 2019; Kaushik and Thomas 2019; Świacka et al 2019). Furthermore, new pharmaceuticals are approved every year, but only few of them have been studied from an ecotoxicological point of view (Bagnis et al 2020). Despite their low environmental concentrations (ranging from 10 3 to 10 7 times lower than those known for median lethal concentration or median effect concentration [EC50] values), they can cause negative effects on nontarget organisms (Cunha et al 2019; Ojemaye and Petrik 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ketamine and Norketamine: Enantioresolution and Enantioselective Aquatic Ecotoxicity Studies

Pérez-Pereira

Ribeiro

Teles

et al. 2021

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Ketamine is a chiral drug used for various clinical purposes but often misused. It is metabolized to norketamine, an active chiral metabolite. Both substances have been detected in environmental matrices, but studies about their enantioselective toxic effects are scarce. In the present study, the enantiomers of ketamine and norketamine were separated by a semipreparative enantioselective liquid chromatography method, and their toxicity was investigated in different aquatic organisms. The enantioseparation was achieved using a homemade semipreparative chiral column. Optimized conditions allowed the recovery of compounds with enantiomeric purity higher than 99%, except for (R)‐ketamine (97%). The absolute configuration of the enantiomers was achieved by experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD). The ecotoxicity assays were performed with the microcrustacean Daphnia magna and the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila using Toxkit MicroBioTests. Different concentrations were tested (0.1–10 000 µg/L) to include environmental levels (~0.5–~100 µg/L), for racemates (R,S) and the isolated enantiomers (R or S) of ketamine and norketamine. No toxicity was observed in either organism at environmental levels. However, at greater concentrations, (R,S)‐ketamine presented higher mortality for D. magna compared with its metabolite (R,S)‐norketamine (85 and 20%, respectively), and the (S)‐ketamine enantiomer showed higher toxicity than the (R)‐ketamine enantiomer. In addition, (S)‐ketamine also presented higher growth inhibition than (R)‐ketamine for T. thermophila at the highest concentrations (5000 and 10 000 µg/L). Contrary to D. magna, growth inhibition was observed for both enantiomers of norketamine and in the same magnitude order of the (S)‐ketamine enantiomer. The results showed that the 2 organisms had different susceptibilities to norketamine and that the toxicity of ketamine at high concentrations is enantioselective for both organisms. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:569–579. © 2020 SETAC

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Characterization of the Nairobi River catchment impact zone and occurrence of pharmaceuticals: Implications for an impact zone inclusive environmental risk assessment

Cited by 43 publications

References 48 publications

Socio‐ecological drivers of vertebrate biodiversity and human‐animal interfaces across an urban landscape

Socio‐ecological drivers of vertebrate biodiversity and human‐animal interfaces across an urban landscape

Assessment of the Potential Ecotoxicological Effects of Pharmaceuticals in the World's Rivers

Ketamine and Norketamine: Enantioresolution and Enantioselective Aquatic Ecotoxicity Studies

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