Biomonitoring of pesticides, pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in a freshwater invertebrate to estimate toxic or effect pressure

Abstract

Multiple classes of environmental contaminants have been found in aquatic environments, globally. Understanding internalised concentrations in the organism could further improve the risk assessment process. The present study is concerned with the determination of several contaminant classes (107 compounds) in Gammarus pulex collected from 15 sites covering 5 river catchments across Suffolk, UK. Quantitative method performance was acceptable for 67 compounds including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, illicit drugs and drugs of abuse. A total of 56 compounds were detectable and ranged from <LOQ to 45.3 ng g −1 , with cocaine and lidocaine being the most frequently detected compounds present in all biota samples ( n = 66). For surface water, 50 compounds were detectable and ranged from <LOQ to 382.2 ng L −1 . Additionally, some pesticides currently not approved for use were detected, including fenuron that reached a maximum of 16.1 ng g −1 . The internal concentrations of pesticides were used to estimate toxic pressure which showed that for the measured pesticides toxic pressure was low ranging from logTU ≤−7 to ≤−2. This methodology was extended to pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse in a novel approach that proposed the use of pharmacological data (human therapeutic plasma concentrations) to estimate the likelihood of an effect (or effect pressure) to occur based on the internal exposure of the organism. The quantified effect pressure ranged from logEU ≤−9 to ≤1 with haloperidol showing the largest likelihood for an effect. The approach showed that several pharmaceuticals have the potential to elicit effects but further investigation surrounding thresholds for effects would be required. This new approach presented showed potential to be used to improve risk assessment for pharmaceuticals in the environment.

High-throughput multi-residue quantification of contaminants of emerging concern in wastewaters enabled using direct injection liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

“…However, this direct LC–MS/MS method included several new compounds, most notably biocides, of which only terbutryn was found in London wastewater samples. Recently, fenuron was determined at high frequency in biota and river water in Suffolk, UK by our group, even though it has been removed from use in the UK ( Miller et al, 2019 ). Fenuron was not detected in London wastewater on this occasion.…”

Multicompartment and cross-species monitoring of contaminants of emerging concern in an estuarine habitat

“…The analytical workflow used for determination of compounds in animal, water and sediment samples followed a previous validated method for G. pulex ( Miller et al., 2019b ). Macroinvertebrate samples were lyophilised at −50 °C under vacuum for 24 h. Pooled samples of organisms were placed into 2 mL Eppendorf tubes with a 3 mm diameter tungsten carbide bead and subsequently ground into a fine powder using a TissueLyser LT (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) set at 50 Hz for 5 min.…”

“…Another class of chemicals often present in wastewater (that overlap with pharmaceuticals) are recreational drugs, but these have not had nearly as much focus as environmental contaminants by comparison, likely due to the obvious difficulties for regulation. Our previous study ( Miller et al., 2019b ) showed that several of these compounds were frequently found in surface water and biota which included cocaine, ketamine and 3,4-methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA). These compounds overlap with sewage epidemiology studies that often report their occurrence in wastewater to link to public consumption ( González-Mariño et al., 2020 ).…”

Assessment of the acute toxicity of 16 veterinary drugs and a disinfectant to aquatic and soil organisms

“…However, because the VICH guidelines are not applicable to existing veterinary drugs, their environmental impact remains unknown. Thus, little information is available regarding the environmental risks of a majority of veterinary drugs (Eguchi et al, 2004;Fukunaga et al, 2006;Garric et al, 2007;Lútzhøft et al, 1999;Halling-Sørensen, 2000;Yang et al, 2008), and reliable data is desired (Miller et al, 2019).…”