TY - JOUR
T1 - Predicting concentrations of cytostatic drugs in sewage effluents and surface waters of Catalonia (NE Spain)
AU - Franquet-Griell, Helena
AU - Gómez-Canela, Cristian
AU - Ventura, Francesc
AU - Lacorte, Silvia
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank CatSalut, and especially Pere Carbonell and Montserrat Bosch, for kindly providing the consumption data. The authors also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under the Project CTQ2011-25875 and the FPI Grant BES-2012-053000 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2015/4/1
Y1 - 2015/4/1
N2 - Cytostatic drugs, used in chemotherapy, are excreted unchanged by urine and feces or modified as metabolites. Elimination of these drugs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is often incomplete and residues reach surface water. Their presence in the natural environment depends on consumption patterns, excretion fraction and the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment. This study compiled the total consumption of cytostatic drugs in Catalonia (NE Spain) and provides data on the occurrence and risk of anticancer drugs in the aquatic environment by calculating predicted environmental concentrations (PECs). PECs were estimated using publicly available consumption data in the period of 2010-2012, published or calculated excretion values and wastewater elimination rates for a suite of 132 compounds. This allows predicting the range of concentrations in effluent wastewaters and receiving waters. Out of the 132 cytostatics, mycophenolic acid and hydroxycarbamide had a PEC value higher than 10ngL-1. PECs were compared with MECs (measured environmental concentrations) to evaluate the reliability of the estimation. A risk assessment was conducted to determine the potential adverse effects of cytostatics in the environment. All the risk quotients calculated using EC50 in Daphnia magna were below 1, showing no significant risk.
AB - Cytostatic drugs, used in chemotherapy, are excreted unchanged by urine and feces or modified as metabolites. Elimination of these drugs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is often incomplete and residues reach surface water. Their presence in the natural environment depends on consumption patterns, excretion fraction and the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment. This study compiled the total consumption of cytostatic drugs in Catalonia (NE Spain) and provides data on the occurrence and risk of anticancer drugs in the aquatic environment by calculating predicted environmental concentrations (PECs). PECs were estimated using publicly available consumption data in the period of 2010-2012, published or calculated excretion values and wastewater elimination rates for a suite of 132 compounds. This allows predicting the range of concentrations in effluent wastewaters and receiving waters. Out of the 132 cytostatics, mycophenolic acid and hydroxycarbamide had a PEC value higher than 10ngL-1. PECs were compared with MECs (measured environmental concentrations) to evaluate the reliability of the estimation. A risk assessment was conducted to determine the potential adverse effects of cytostatics in the environment. All the risk quotients calculated using EC50 in Daphnia magna were below 1, showing no significant risk.
KW - Cytostatic drugs
KW - Predicted environmental concentrations
KW - Risk assessment
KW - River
KW - WWTP effluent
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923171450&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envres.2015.02.015
DO - 10.1016/j.envres.2015.02.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 25721243
AN - SCOPUS:84923171450
SN - 0013-9351
VL - 138
SP - 161
EP - 172
JO - Environmental Research
JF - Environmental Research
ER -