TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of predicted environmental concentrations to prioritize the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in rivers from Catalonia
AU - Gómez-Canela, Cristian
AU - Pueyo, Víctor
AU - Barata, Carlos
AU - Lacorte, Sílvia
AU - Marcé, Rosa Maria
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank CatSalut, and especially Pere Carbonell and Montserrat Bosch, for kindly providing the consumption data of pharmaceuticals in Catalonia. The authors also gratefully acknowledge Teresa Sala-Comorera for helping in the initial calculations of PECs. This study has been financed by the SUDOE program with the project Innovec'Eau (2016–2019)/Project SOE1/P1/F0173 Interreg SUDOE funded by FEDER : 1.177.875,64 €; http://innovec-eau.univ-perp.fr .
Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank CatSalut, and especially Pere Carbonell and Montserrat Bosch, for kindly providing the consumption data of pharmaceuticals in Catalonia. The authors also gratefully acknowledge Teresa Sala-Comorera for helping in the initial calculations of PECs. This study has been financed by the SUDOE program with the project Innovec'Eau (2016–2019)/Project SOE1/P1/F0173 Interreg SUDOE funded by FEDER: 1.177.875,64 €; http://innovec-eau.univ-perp.fr.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/5/20
Y1 - 2019/5/20
N2 - The main objective of the present study is to prioritize those pharmaceuticals that have higher chances to be detected in water due to incomplete removal in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs). To do so, the total consumption of pharmaceuticals in Catalonia (NE Spain) were compiled to calculate the predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) in wastewater effluents and in river water. PECs were estimated using publicly available consumption data in the period of 2013–2016 for a suite of 165 compounds. The selected compounds were based on generic pharmaceuticals with emphasis on drugs consumed by people aged 65 or over as they represent the age group with the highest consumption of pharmaceuticals. The mean total consumption of pharmaceuticals in the period studied was of 623 ± 3 t per year. Paracetamol, metformin and ibuprofen were the most administered drugs although the highest PEC values corresponded to metformin, amoxicillin and metamizole. Finally, predicted environmental levels together with acute and chronic toxicological data allowed estimating the risks of these compounds. Amoxicillin is expected to pose adverse effects for cyanobacteria, whereas metformin and ibuprofen pose a small potential for adverse effects to invertebrates and fish, respectively.
AB - The main objective of the present study is to prioritize those pharmaceuticals that have higher chances to be detected in water due to incomplete removal in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs). To do so, the total consumption of pharmaceuticals in Catalonia (NE Spain) were compiled to calculate the predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) in wastewater effluents and in river water. PECs were estimated using publicly available consumption data in the period of 2013–2016 for a suite of 165 compounds. The selected compounds were based on generic pharmaceuticals with emphasis on drugs consumed by people aged 65 or over as they represent the age group with the highest consumption of pharmaceuticals. The mean total consumption of pharmaceuticals in the period studied was of 623 ± 3 t per year. Paracetamol, metformin and ibuprofen were the most administered drugs although the highest PEC values corresponded to metformin, amoxicillin and metamizole. Finally, predicted environmental levels together with acute and chronic toxicological data allowed estimating the risks of these compounds. Amoxicillin is expected to pose adverse effects for cyanobacteria, whereas metformin and ibuprofen pose a small potential for adverse effects to invertebrates and fish, respectively.
KW - PECs
KW - Pharmaceuticals
KW - Prioritization
KW - Risk assessment
KW - Rivers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061700113&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.078
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.078
M3 - Article
C2 - 30784823
AN - SCOPUS:85061700113
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 666
SP - 57
EP - 67
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -