Priority Pharmaceutical Micropollutants and Feasible Management Initiatives to Control Water Pollution from the Perspective of Stakeholders in Metropolis of Southern Brazil

Abstract

The search for common agreement between stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges when solving environmental problems. There are different views, perceptions, knowledge, and sectoral goals for these stakeholders. In complex environmental problems, such as the management of pharmaceutical micropollutants, it is essential to establish the intersectoral and individual sector priorities for a collective approach to the problem. This research aimed to identify the priority micropollutants for intervention initiatives and the management goals of the stakeholders involved in the "product chain" of pharmaceuticals in the region of Curitiba, Brazil. First, the most consumed pharmaceutical micropollutants in the region and those previously detected in water were identified, and a "long list" of 40 pharmaceuticals was drawn up for stakeholder prioritization. Stakeholders of the region were selected by intentional sampling and were invited to a workshop that was designed to list, by consensus, the priority micropollutants and objectives for their management. The event was attended by 37 stakeholders from different sectors. It was divided into 2 stages: the 1 st stage was a multisectoral discussion to select the priority pharmaceutical micropollutants; the 2 nd stage was a sectoral discussion to establish management objectives to control and reduce the presence of these pollutants in waters. The meeting generated a coherent prioritization of pharmaceuticals where ethinyl estradiol, ciprofloxacin, ibuprofen, diclofenac, estradiol, caffeine, and fluoxetine were prioritized and their importance was justified. The main sectoral goals prioritized were related to the drug take-back program, the characterization of the presence of pharmaceuticals in the sanitation cycle, and the creation of a permanent multisector discussion environment for the theme. The multisectoral definition, established by consensus, of management priorities is promising and this strategic approach can be replicated in other developing countries. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16: 955-967.

Presence of emerging and conventional contaminants in water sources in the city of Cuiabá (MT): potential sources and damages

“…Besides the conventional parameters described in the legislation, pharmaceutical substances were included in the present study since they have been described as contaminants from urban areas (Table 1). The analyzed pharmaceuticals were chosen based on Presence of emerging and conventional contaminants in water sources in the city of Cuiabá (MT): potential sources and damages other studies carried out in Brazil and South America (Souza et al, 2014;Barcellos et al, 2020;Thomas et al, 2014) also considering the ones that are included in the list of the main ones provided to the population by the public health system through the Popular Pharmacy Program of the Ministry of Health and the published validated method of Souza et al (2014).…”

“…The drugs detected: atenolol, carbamazepine, ibuprofen, naproxen and paracetamol are on the list of drugs distributed in the public network of SUS (National Brazilian Health System) in the state of Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso, 2020) and are widely used by the population. Likewise, they are mentioned by Barcellos et al (2020) as priority drugs to be studied, since they are widely prescribed and used.…”

Novel CuO/Mn3O4/ZnO nanocomposite with superior photocatalytic activity for removal of Rabeprazole from water

“…Among many other emerging organic water pollutants, pharmaceutical waste is of great concern 3 , 4 . Pharmaceutical substances often get into water bodies by human excretion and their inappropriate disposal of hospital waste 5 , 6 . Because of the ability to interact with living bodies, pharmaceutical wastes often impose threat to the aquatic ecosystem 7 .…”