Health risk-based prioritization approaches of pharmaceuticals in the Upper Citarum River Basin

Abstract

Two methods were developed to prioritize human health risks of pharmaceuticals based on defined daily doses (DDDs) obtained from the WHO and acute toxicity data on pharmaceuticals (TDLo) obtained from the PubChem database. A major advantage of these methods is that it requires no acceptable daily intake (ADI), reference dose (RfD), or tolerable daily intake (TDI) values, which are often unavailable or difficult to obtain for pharmaceuticals group. Both methods were applied to prioritize 16 pharmaceuticals detected by passive samplers in the water source of Ciwalengke Village, a peri-urban area in the Upper Citarum River Basin. Ten out of 16 pharmaceuticals could be prioritized by using both methods. The risk indicator values (RIhum) showed good agreement between the two approaches, especially for Caffeine and Trimethoprim. The priority ranking of Caffeine and Lidocaine were always in the top 3 highest human health risks. The ranking comparison showed considerable consistency, indicating that both prioritization methods are reasonably in line with each other. The pharmaceutical intake through the exposure of contaminated river water was expected to pose negligible human health risks (i.e. RIhum < 1) but can be refined more by conducting supplementary effects studies for other individual pharmaceuticals or pharmaceuticals mixtures.

Trihalomethanes formation potential of polluted tropical river water and its correlation with UV-Vis spectral ratio: A case study in Citarum River, Indonesia

“…A previous study reported that the A280/A350 ratio also had a medium correlation with haloacetic acid-5 (HAA5FP) on the chlorination process of peat water DOM fraction [16]. Also, the E2/E3 ratio was reported to have a great correlation with HAA5FP [15]. Korshin et al [20] also reported that the A253/A203 had a high correlation (96%) with THMFP yield.…”

“…UV254 absorbances were used as the indicator of organic matter. The E2/E3, E4/E6, A280/A350, and A254/A203 ratios were used to determine the NOM characteristics based on hydrophobicity and phenolic compound [15]. To determine THM4FP, the THM4 from the samples was extracted to MTBE using sodium sulfate to increase the ionic strength of the aqueous phase following the EPA 551.1 method [24].…”

“…Several studies reported that the THMs formation is not only caused by the presence of natural organic matter (NOM) but also by the presence of anthropogenic organic matter (AOM) in water [10][11][12]. Citarum River water has been reported to be polluted by microplastics [2,13], pesticides [1,14], and pharmaceuticals [1,15]. The presence of AOM was reported not only as toxic but also could trigger DBPs formation when the water sources are used for WTP intake and disinfected using chlorine [12].…”

“…UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) play an important role in the study of aquatic organic matter [16][17][18]. The chromophoric DOM (C-DOM) absorbs the UV-Vis spectra and the absorbance increases exponentially by the decrease of wavelengths [15,18]. The spectral absorbances parameter has been reported to correlate with the DBPs formation, especially THMs [20].…”