Occurrence of Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in Brazilian Water and the Risks They May Represent to Human Health

Abstract

The risks of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (P&EDC) to the environment and human health are a current topic of interest. Hundreds of P&EDC may reach the environment, hence, there is a need to rank the level of concern of human exposure to these compounds. Thus, this work aimed at setting a priority list of P&EDC in Brazil, by studying their occurrence in raw and drinking water, calculating health guideline values (GV), and estimating the risks of population exposure to water intake. Data on the Brazilian pharmaceutical market as well as published data of the monitoring of Brazilian natural and drinking water have been collected by means of an exhaustive literature review. Furthermore, many foreign data were also collected to enable a comparison of the values found in Brazilian studies. A list of 55 P&EDC that have the potential to be found in Brazilian water is proposed, and for 41 of these a risk assessment was performed by estimating their margin of exposure (ME), by considering their occurrence in drinking water, and guideline values estimated from reported acceptable daily intake (ADI) data. For seven compounds the risk was deemed high (three estrogens and four anti-inflammatories), whereas for another seven compounds, it was regarded as an ‘alert’ situation. Although such risk analysis is conservative, since it has been calculated based on the highest reported P&EDC concentration in drinking water, it highlights the need to enhance their monitoring in Brazil to strengthen the database and support decision makers. An analysis of the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance agents (antibiotics, resistant bacteria, and resistance genes) in surface waters was also carried out and confirmed that such agents are present in water sources throughout Brazil, which deserves the attention of policy makers and health agents to prevent dissemination of antimicrobial resistance through water use.

Occurrence, efficiency of treatment processes, source apportionment and human health risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and xenoestrogen compounds in tap water from some Ghanaian communities

“…Also, the level 4-NP, up to 0.590 μg/L recorded in this study was comparable to that up to 0.51 μg/L reported by Colin et al [ 111 ]. The results reported for both the raw and tap water samples from Ghana in the current study are relatively lower than those reported by de Aquino et al [ 101 ] in Brazilian water.…”

“…de Aquino et al 101] reported levels of 64.8 μg/L, 6.81 μg/L, and 4.39 μg/L for BPA, βE2, and EE2 respectively in Brazilian raw water, which were significantly higher than what were recorded in raw water for the current study. Again in Brazilian drinking water, de Aquino et al [ 101 ] reported levels of 2.50 μg/L, 0.620 μg/L and 2.82 μg/L for BPA, EE2 and 4-NP respectively, that were higher than the levels recorded in the current study. These suggested that raw water samples studied in Brazil were relatively highly contaminated by these PXCs than that from Ghana in the current study, which retrospectively reflects the difference in levels reported in drinking water samples from the two studies.…”

A Current Review of Water Pollutants in American Continent: Trends and Perspectives in Detection, Health Risks, and Treatment Technologies

“…On the other hand, for organic contaminants, data analysis and comparison has been performed in different countries evidencing the necessity of establishing strategies to remediate water pollution (Figure 1). These strategies are urgent, based on the potential risk that these contaminants can have on human health [88][89][90]. Although there are currently certain reports, guidance values or standards that allow establishing criteria based on the presence of these contaminants and their potential toxic effect are needed [43,91].…”

Exploring Bacterial Cellulose and a Biosurfactant as Eco-Friendly Strategies for Addressing Pharmaceutical Contaminants

“…Currently, there is a lack of consensus or adequate evidence concerning safety limits required to prevent the adverse effects of these substances on the environment or human health. Consequently, pharmaceutical products, especially those with endocrine-disrupting characteristics like the hormones in contraceptives, have become a focal point of investigation [ 5 ]. Notably, 17α-estradiol (EE2) is a prominent estrogenic steroid capable of causing harmful effects (endocrine disruption) even at extremely low concentrations [ 6 ].…”