Global Synthesis and Critical Evaluation of Pharmaceutical Data Sets Collected from River Systems

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals have emerged as a major group of environmental contaminants over the past decade but relatively little is known about their occurrence in freshwaters compared to other pollutants. We present a global-scale analysis of the presence of 203 pharmaceuticals across 41 countries and show that contamination is extensive due to widespread consumption and subsequent disposal to rivers. There are clear regional biases in current understanding with little work outside North America, Europe, and China, and no work within Africa. Within individual countries, research is biased around a small number of populated provinces/states and the majority of research effort has focused upon just 14 compounds. Most research has adopted sampling techniques that are unlikely to provide reliable and representative data. This analysis highlights locations where concentrations of antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs, painkillers, contrast media, and antiepileptic drugs have been recorded well above thresholds known to cause toxic effects in aquatic biota. Studies of pharmaceutical occurrence and effects need to be seen as a global research priority due to increasing consumption, particularly among societies with aging populations. Researchers in all fields of environmental management need to work together more effectively to identify high risk compounds, improve the reliability and coverage of future monitoring studies, and develop new mitigation measures.

Ecological effects of pharmaceuticals in aquatic systems—impacts through behavioural alterations

“…According to the literature reviewed here, it is clear that antidepressants, psychiatric drugs (benzodiazepines) and antihistamines can induce behavioural changes in fish at concentrations ranging from low ng l 21 to low mg l 21 [33,36,42,49], which are close to the concentrations found in natural systems [21,29]. Although this suggests that ecological effects of pharmaceuticals may occur in aquatic systems dominated by wastewater effluent, effects of some pharmaceuticals were found only at higher, not environmentally relevant, concentrations.…”

“…Absolute recoveries of oxazepam in the damselfly and fish muscle extraction were 104% (RSD 7%, N ¼ 6) and 100% (RSD 12%, N ¼ 6), respectively. Limit of quantification was 0.5 mg kg 21 . Bioconcentration factors (BCFs) were estimated by dividing individual full body concentrations with measured water concentration in the corresponding individual aquarium.…”

“…In surface waters, concentrations of pharmaceuticals usually range from low ng l 21 to low mg l 21 , and are correlated to human population density in the drainage area, volume of the receiving water body and technologies used in STPs [21,24,25], but certain point sources, such as pharmaceutical production and manufacturing facilities, can result in concentrations as high as mg l 21 in receiving surface waters [25 -27]. A wide range of pharmaceuticals has been found in freshwater systems [21,28,29]. Most of these pharmaceuticals are designed to quickly medicate and then leave the human body without degrading, resulting in them entering freshwater systems still pharmacologically active.…”

Fate and mass balance of contaminants of emerging concern during wastewater treatment determined using the fractionated approach

“…Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including pharmaceuticals and personal care products 42 (PPCPs), drugs of abuse (DOAs), hormones and stimulants are present in the aquatic environment 43 (Blair et al, 2013a;Hughes et al, 2013;Rodayan et al, 2015), and these CECs were found to have 44 adverse effects on aquatic organisms (Gay et al, 2015;Kidd et al, 2007;Kümmerer, 2008;Purdom 45 et al, 1994). Discharges of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as the 46 primary source for CECs introduced into surface waters (Luo et al, 2014).…”

Research trends on emerging environment pollutants – a review

“…ECs include newly synthesized substances as well as ones that have long been present in the environment but whose presence and significance are only now being elucidated [3]. They include a wide array of different compounds and their transformation products: pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, veterinary products, industrial compounds/by-products, food additives, and engineered nano-materials [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. An estimated 23 million chemicals have been indexed, with more than 7 million commercially available but only 230,000 are inventoried or regulated by governments worldwide [11].…”