Fluoroquinolones in the Wenyu River catchment, China: Occurrence simulation and risk assessment

Abstract

Concern is increasing regarding the environmental impact of the high usage rate and intensive release of antibiotics used for human and animal therapy in major urban areas of China. In the present study, regional environmental distribution simulations and risk assessments for 3 commonly used fluoroquinolones in the Wenyu River catchment were conducted using a typical catchment model widely used in Europe. The fluoroquinolone antibiotics investigated (ofloxacin, norfloxacin, and ciprofloxacin) are consumed at high levels for personal health care in China. These antibiotics were simulated in the aquatic environment of the Wenyu River catchment across the Beijing City area for annual average concentrations, with regional predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) of approximately 711 ng/L, 55.3 ng/L, and 22.2 ng/L and local PECs up to 1.8 mg/L, 116 ng/L, and 43 ng/L, respectively. Apart from hydrological conditions, the concentrations of fluoroquinolones were associated closely with the sewage treatment plants (STPs) and their serving population, as well as hospital distributions. The presence of these fluoroquinolones in the catchment area of the present study showed significant characteristics of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment in an urban river, with typical "down-the-drain" chemicals. Significantly high concentrations of specific antibiotics indicated non-negligible risks caused by the intensive use in the local aquatic environment in a metropolitan area, particularly ofloxacin in upstream Shahe Reservoir, middle stream and downstream Qing River, and Liangma River to the Ba River segment. Specific treatment measures for these pharmaceuticals and personal care products in STPs are required for such metropolitan areas. Environ Toxicol Chem 2015;34:2764-2770. # 2015 SETAC

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“…[35][36][37] Because of its low metabolic rate and poor biodegradability, uoroquinolone antibiotics are detected not only in effluents of wastewater treatment plant, but also in surface water and other environmental matrixes. [38][39][40] The persistence of uoroquinolone antibiotics in aquatic environment in particular can lead to antibiotic resistance. [41][42][43] Almost 70% of Nor was le in the sludge of biological treatment plants.…”

Wastewater Treatment Plants; Hot Spots of Emerging Contaminants in the Environment

“…Resistance to β-lactamase antibiotics indicates possible treatment failure and could be life-threatening, hence a high risk to public health. Earlier reports from a study of regional environmental distribution simulations and risk assessments for commonly used fluoroquinolones in the Wenyu River catchment and upstream Shahe Reservoir reported the presence of high Ciprofloxacin 25 . Interestingly, the Wenyu River was part of the study locations in this research and with similar results reflecting antibiotics and antibiotics resistance genes abundance.…”

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Aquatic Environment: How Can Regions at Risk be Identified in the Future?

“…An extensive system description of both, plus a review of their applications is provided by Aldekoa et al (2016). Since then, both have been further developed and applied beyond their original geographies, for example, to estimate pharmaceutical concentration profiles in Asian (Hao et al, 2015; Ji et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2020) and South American river basins (Archundia et al, 2018). Over the past decade, a wide range of similar models has been published and applied to describe the dynamics of aquatic PPCPs, including ePiE (Oldenkamp et al, 2018), GWAVA (Johnson et al, 2013), HydroROUT (Grill et al, 2016), LF2000‐WQX (Boxall et al, 2014), iSTREEM (Kapo et al, 2016), STREAM‐EU (Lindim et al, 2019), and the recent global model GLOBAL‐FATE (Font et al, 2019).…”