Occurrence of caffeine, fluoxetine, bezafibrate and levothyroxine in surface freshwater of São Paulo State (Brazil) and risk assessment for aquatic life protection

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2021-04, Vol.28 (16), p.20751-20761
• Main Authors: de Souza, Raquel Cardoso, Godoy, Aline Andrade, Kummrow, Fábio, dos Santos, Thyago Leandro, Brandão, Carlos Jesus, Pinto, Ernani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Aquatic animals; Aquatic biota; Aquatic environment; Aquatic organisms; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bezafibrate; Biota; Caffeine; Contamination; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental assessment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental monitoring; Environmental risk; Environmental science; Evaluation; Fluoxetine; Fresh water; Pollutants; Quotients; Research Article; Risk assessment; Sampling; Surface water; Thyroxine; Waste Water Technology; Water analysis; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water sampling
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-11799-5

The prioritization of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for monitoring programmes and/or environmental risk assessment (ERA) purposes is based on several criteria, including environmental occurrence data. However, data on API occurrence in Brazilian surface freshwaters are still scarce. The Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) provides several medicines free-of-charge, including medications that have bezafibrate, fluoxetine and levothyroxine as the API. Thus, our objective was to investigate the occurrence of bezafibrate, fluoxetine and levothyroxine in samples collected at sampling sites included in the surface freshwater monitoring program of the São Paulo State Environmental Agency (CETESB); caffeine was also included in the analysis because it is commonly used as an anthropogenic marker of aquatic environment contamination. Monitoring results showed that levothyroxine was not found in any of the analysed samples. Caffeine was ubiquitous in the analysed samples, thus indicating anthropic contamination in the studied water bodies. Caffeine and bezafibrate presented risk quotient (RQ)  1 were found in all water samples in which this API was found, indicating a potential risk for freshwater pelagic biota. Thus, fluoxetine should be regulated in São Paulo State in order to protect the aquatic biota. Additional occurrence studies in other Brazilian states are still needed to evaluate if fluoxetine is a nationwide pollutant.