Human health risk assessments for three neuropharmaceutical compounds in surface waters

Bercu, Joel P.; Parke, Neil J.; Fiori, Janice M.; Meyerhoff, Roger D.

doi:10.1016/j.yrtph.2008.01.014

Cited by 48 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Risk assessments of the human health effects of pharmaceuticals in drinking water have been conducted and have found that overall, individual pharmaceuticals are expected to pose a negligible risk to human health (Bercu et al 2008; de Jesus Gaffney et al 2015; de Jongh et al 2012; Leung et al 2013; Schwab et al 2005; World Health Organization 2012). However, there is concern about antibiotics in the environment.…”

Section: Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in waters: occurrence, toxicity, and risk

et al. 2015

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Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) are compounds with special physical and chemical properties that address the care of animal and human health. PPCP have been detected in surface water and wastewater in the ng/L to µg/L concentration range worldwide. PPCP ecotoxicity has been studied in a variety of organisms, and multiple methods have been used to assess the risk of PPCP in the environment to ecological health. Here we review the occurrence, effects, and risk assessment of PPCP in aquatic systems, as well as the sustainability of current methods for managing PPCP contamination in aquatic systems. The major points are the following: (1) a number of PPCP present potential concerns at environmentally relevant concentrations. PPCP mixtures may produce synergistic toxicity. (2) Various methods have been used for the ecological risk assessment of PPCP in aquatic systems. There are similarities in these methods, but no consensus has emerged regarding best practices for the ecological risk assessment of these compounds. (3) Human health risk assessments of PPCP contamination in aquatic systems have generally indicated little cause for concern. However, there is a lack of information regarding whether antibiotic contamination in wastewater and aquatic systems could lead to an increase in clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistant genes. (4) Over the next century, the combination of increasing global population size and potential droughts may result in reduced water availability, increased need for water reuse, and increasing concentrations of PPCP in wastewaters. The current wastewater treatment methods do not remove all PPCP effectively. This, coupled with the possibility that antibiotics may promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistant genes, leads to concerns about the sustainability of global water supplies.

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Section: Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in waters: occurrence, toxicity, and risk

et al. 2015

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“…There still remains a great deal of uncertainty regarding these contaminants, and quantitative studies completed to date have found no appreciable adverse effects on human health due to trace amounts of pharmaceuticals consumed in fish or drinking water, or due to exposure in aquatic environments [4,[52][53][54]. Exposure assessment has demonstrated that many pharmaceuticals have observed environmental concentrations significantly below their lowest observed effect concentration (LOEC) [55].…”

Section: Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Wastewater Management: Is it Possible to Regulate Micropollution in the Future by Learning from the Past? A Policy Analysis

Metz

Ingold

2014

Sustainability

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This paper applies a policy analysis approach to the question of how to effectively regulate micropollution in a sustainable manner. Micropollution is a complex policy problem characterized by a huge number and diversity of chemical substances, as well as various entry paths into the aquatic environment. It challenges traditional water quality management by calling for new technologies in wastewater treatment and behavioral changes in industry, agriculture and civil society. In light of such challenges, the question arises as to how to regulate such a complex phenomenon to ensure water quality is maintained in the future? What can we learn from past experiences in water quality regulation? To answer these questions, policy analysis strongly focuses on the design and choice of policy instruments and the mix of such measures. In this paper, we review instruments commonly used in past water quality regulation. We evaluate their ability to respond to the characteristics of a more recent water quality problem, i.e., micropollution, in a sustainable way. This way, we develop a new framework that integrates both the problem dimension (i.e., causes and effects of a problem) as well as the sustainability dimension (e.g., long-term, cross-sectoral and multi-level) to assess which policy instruments are best suited to regulate micropollution. We thus conclude that sustainability OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2014, 6 1993 criteria help to identify an appropriate instrument mix of end-of-pipe and source-directed measures to reduce aquatic micropollution.

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“…The QPhRA process helps in estimating the nature and probability of adverse health effects in humans who may be exposed to pharmaceuticals from contaminated environmental media [16]. It primarily involves four major steps: (1) Hazard identification, (2) Exposure assessment, (3) Dose-response relationship, and (4) Risk characterization [3,6–12,15–18]. The reviewed retrospective site-specific QPhRA are summarized in Table 1.…”

Section: Identification Of Existing Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the relatively fast growing numbers of studies on ecological/environmental risk associated with pharmaceuticals in water, the number of publications related to studies on human health risks remains small (Figure 1), however, the trend is increasing with time. Even though risk from exposure to pharmaceuticals in drinking water is minimal [3,6–12], information about characterization of pharmaceuticals is still lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Health Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals in Water: Issues and Challenges Ahead

Kumar

Chang

Xagoraraki

2010

IJERPH

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This study identified existing issues related to quantitative pharmaceutical risk assessment (QPhRA, hereafter) for pharmaceuticals in water and proposed possible solutions by analyzing methodologies and findings of different published QPhRA studies. Retrospective site-specific QPhRA studies from different parts of the world (U.S.A., United Kingdom, Europe, India, etc.) were reviewed in a structured manner to understand different assumptions, outcomes obtained and issues, identified/addressed/raised by the different QPhRA studies. Till date, most of the published studies have concluded that there is no appreciable risk to human health during environmental exposures of pharmaceuticals; however, attention is still required to following identified issues: (1) Use of measured versus predicted pharmaceutical concentration, (2) Identification of pharmaceuticals-of-concern and compounds needing special considerations, (3) Use of source water versus finished drinking water-related exposure scenarios, (4) Selection of representative exposure routes, (5) Valuation of uncertainty factors, and (6) Risk assessment for mixture of chemicals. To close the existing data and methodology gaps, this study proposed possible ways to address and/or incorporation these considerations within the QPhRA framework; however, more research work is still required to address issues, such as incorporation of short-term to long-term extrapolation and mixture effects in the QPhRA framework. Specifically, this study proposed a development of a new “mixture effects-related uncertainty factor” for mixture of chemicals (i.e., mixUFcomposite), similar to an uncertainty factor of a single chemical, within the QPhRA framework. In addition to all five traditionally used uncertainty factors, this uncertainty factor is also proposed to include concentration effects due to presence of different range of concentration levels of pharmaceuticals in a mixture. However, further work is required to determine values of all six uncertainty factors and incorporate them to use during estimation of point-of-departure values within the QPhRA framework.

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Human health risk assessments for three neuropharmaceutical compounds in surface waters

Cited by 48 publications

References 20 publications

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in waters: occurrence, toxicity, and risk

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in waters: occurrence, toxicity, and risk

Sustainable Wastewater Management: Is it Possible to Regulate Micropollution in the Future by Learning from the Past? A Policy Analysis

Human Health Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals in Water: Issues and Challenges Ahead

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