Pharmaceuticals in the environment—Global occurrences and perspectives

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are known to occur widely in the environment of industrialized countries. In developing countries, more monitoring results have recently become available, but a concise picture of measured environmental concentrations (MECs) is still elusive. Through a comprehensive literature review of 1016 original publications and 150 review articles, the authors collected MECs for human and veterinary pharmaceutical substances reported worldwide in surface water, groundwater, tap/drinking water, manure, soil, and other environmental matrices in a comprehensive database. Due to the heterogeneity of the data sources, a simplified data quality assessment was conducted. The database reveals that pharmaceuticals or their transformation products have been detected in the environment of 71 countries covering all continents. These countries were then grouped into the 5 regions recognized by the United Nations (UN). In total, 631 different pharmaceutical substances were found at MECs above the detection limit of the respective analytical methods employed, revealing distinct regional patterns. Sixteen substances were detected in each of the 5 UN regions. For example, the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac has been detected in environmental matrices in 50 countries, and concentrations found in several locations exceeded predicted no-effect concentrations. Urban wastewater seems to be the dominant emission pathway for pharmaceuticals globally, although emissions from industrial production, hospitals, agriculture, and aquaculture are important locally. The authors conclude that pharmaceuticals are a global challenge calling for multistakeholder approaches to prevent, reduce, and manage their entry into and presence in the environment, such as those being discussed under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, a UN Environment Program. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:823-835. # 2015 SETAC

Development of a common carp (Cyprinus carpio) pregnane X receptor (cPXR) transactivation reporter assay and its activation by azole fungicides and pharmaceutical chemicals

“…Globally, pharmaceuticals have been detected in surface waters and wastewater treatment work effluents (reviewed in Aus der Beek et al, 2016) and are of concern to receiving biota due to their biological specificity and potency (reviewed in Corcoran et al, 2010). In mammals, PXR is known to play a significant role in regulating drug biotransformation (Liddle and Goodwin, 2002) whereas in fish, very limited information is available on the involvement of PXR in drug biotransformation.…”

Hidden drivers of low-dose pharmaceutical pollutant mixtures revealed by the novel GSA-QHTS screening method

“…The selected set of PPCPs included most families of pharmaceutical pollutants occurring broadly in freshwaters, such as antibiotics, lipid regulators, stimulants, analgesics, hypertension regulators, and psychiatric drugs ( 26 , 27 ). Individual PPCP doses in the mixtures ranged from 25.5 to 40,780.0 ng liter −1 , differing by nearly three orders of magnitude along their three selected environmentally realistic discrete dose levels (median of means, mean of maxima, and maximum of maxima; Fig.…”

“…The total PPCP doses of the mixtures presented a bimodal frequency distribution (Fig. 2D) with a minimum total dose of 25,490 ng liter −1 and a maximum dose of 123,500 ng liter −1 , indicating a slight bias toward the maximum values of environmental occurrence ( 26 , 27 ). This is a drawback of the interlevel uniformity of dose distance required to optimize GSA screening computation.…”

Biodegradation of emerging pollutants: focus on pharmaceuticals

“…According to aus der Beek et al 4 , the prevalence of antibiotics and analgesics in the environment, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, is a typical situation for the eastern European countries and Russia.…”