Pharmaceuticals residues in selected tropical surface water bodies from Selangor (Malaysia): Occurrence and potential risk assessments

Abstract

This study investigated the occurrence of nine pharmaceuticals (amoxicillin, caffeine, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, dexamethasone, diclofenac, nitrofurazone, sulfamethoxazole, and triclosan) and to evaluate potential risks (human health and ecotoxicological) in Lui, Gombak and Selangor (Malaysia) rivers using commercial competitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit assays. Physicochemical properties of these rivers showed the surface samples belong to Class II of Malaysian National Water Quality Standards which requires conventional treatment before consumption. All the pharmaceuticals were detected in all three rivers except for triclosan, dexamethasone and diclofenac which were not detected in few of sampling locations in these three rivers. Highest pharmaceutical concentrations were detected in Gombak river in line of being as one of the most polluted rivers in Malaysia. Ciprofloxacin concentrations were detected in all the sampling locations with the highest at 299.88 ng/L. While triclosan, dexamethasone and diclofenac concentrations were not detected in a few of sampling locations in these three rivers. All these nine pharmaceuticals were within the levels reported previously in literature. Pharmaceutical production, wastewater treatment technologies and treated sewage effluent were found as the potential sources which can be related with pharmaceuticals occurrence in surface water samples. Potential human risk assessment showed low health risk except for ciprofloxacin and dexamethasone. Instead, ecotoxicological risk assessment indicated moderate risks were present for these rivers. Nevertheless, results confirmation using instrumental techniques is needed for higher degree of specificity. It is crucial to continuously monitor the surface water bodies for pharmaceuticals using a cost-effective prioritisation approach to assess sensitive sub-populations risk.

Procaine penicillin alters swimming behaviour and physiological parameters of Daphnia magna

“…β-lactam antibiotics are a vast group of drugs that may enter the aquatic environment from fish farms and with effluents discarded from water treatment plants (Done et al 2015 ; Azanu et al 2018 ; Praveena et al 2018 ). Considering that the average level of these pharmaceuticals in wastewater is low (127.49 ng/L) (Kim et al 2018 ) in comparison to the concentrations used in our study, constant exposure to β-lactams should not affect swimming behaviour and physiological parameters of Daphnia magna .…”

A critical review on environmental presence of pharmaceutical drugs tested for the covid-19 treatment

“… Praveena et al (2018) investigated the occurrence of nine drugs, including DEX, to measure potential risks (human health and ecotoxicological) in Lui, Gombak and Selangor (Malaysia). DEX was detected in average concentrations of 0.02 ng L -1 , 6.32 ng L -1 and 0.73 ng L -1 , respectively in the Lui, Gombak and Selangor rivers.…”

Chinese physicians’ attitudes toward eco-directed sustainable prescribing from the perspective of ecopharmacovigilance: a cross-sectional study

“…9 13 The sources of APIs in environment include excretion from drug-consuming patients and animals, inappropriate deposition of expired or unwanted pharmaceutical products, manufacturing plant wastes, hospital wastes, and so on. [19][20][21][22][23] Thereinto, patients' excretion in forms of parent APIs or active metabolites has been well-accepted to constitute the major contribution to most API pollutants in the environment. 15 24-26 Since normal physiological excretion of APIs in drugconsuming patients cannot be prevented, the optimised administration of pharmaceuticals ensuring satisfactory but not too high pharmacologically active concentrations in patients might be a key protective measure against excessive API entry to the environment from excretion.…”