Identifying targets of potential concern by a screening level ecological risk assessment of human use pharmaceuticals in China

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2020-05, Vol.246, p.125818-125818, Article 125818
• Main Authors: Bu, Qingwei, Cao, Yibo, Yu, Gang, He, Xiaofan, Zhang, Handan, Sun, Jinyu, Yun, Mengqi, Cao, Zhiguo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antibiotics; China; Daphnia; Ecology; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Fishes; Forecasting; Humans; Identification; Pharmaceutical Preparations - analysis; PPCPs; Priority pollutants; Probability; Risk Assessment; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Waste Water; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.125818

The pollution of pharmaceuticals has attracted a lot of concerns during recent years. The goal of this study was to identify targets of ecological concern considering human use pharmaceuticals marketed in China. We constructed a database for 593 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) by collecting their information on use and emission (e.g. production, human excretion, and removal by wastewater treatment) to calculated predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) by using an adapted European Medicines Agency method. PECs were comparable to the reported measurements for most APIs, demonstrating that the adapted method is reliable for the prioritization practice. Then PECs were compared to toxicity thresholds of three aquatic taxa (algae, daphnia, and fish). As a result, a total of 31 APIs, which were potentially risky and should be taken into consideration in future studies, were identified. Three APIs would pose a high risk with risk quotient (RQ) greater than 10. Six APIs were identified with moderate risks (1