Authors’ response on Perkins et al. (2021) “Dead in the water: comment on “Development of an aquatic exposure assessment model for imidacloprid in sewage treatment plant discharges arising from use of veterinary medicinal products”

Abstract

In 2020, Anthe et al. published a newly developed model to predict imidacloprid surface water concentrations stemming from sewage treatment plant (STP) effluent as a consequence of the use of veterinary medicinal products containing imidacloprid in the UK (Anthe in Environ Sci Eur (2020) 32:147, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020–00424-4). The modelled data indicate that these veterinary medicinal products make only a very small contribution to the levels of Imidacloprid observed in the UK water monitoring programme.The commentary by Perkins et al. (Perkins in Environ Sci Eur (2021) 33:88, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00533-8) questioned the validity and conclusions of the modelling approach. We believe the modelling approach, which considered what we anticipated to be, the major exposure pathways, gives a realistic picture of the chronic emission via STPs to UK rivers.