Environmental Designer Drugs: When Transformation May Not Eliminate Risk

Environmental transformation processes, including those occurring in natural and engineered systems, do not necessarily drastically alter molecular structures of bioactive organic contaminants. While the majority of generated transformation products are likely benign, substantial conservation of str...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2014-10, Vol.48 (20), p.11737-11745
Main Authors: Cwiertny, David M, Snyder, Shane A, Schlenk, Daniel, Kolodziej, Edward P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Applied sciences
Biological activity
Biological and medical sciences
Designer Drugs - chemistry
Designer Drugs - metabolism
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Environment
Environmental regulations
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Global environmental pollution
Molecular structure
Organic contaminants
Pollution
Pollution, environment geology
Risk
Risk assessment
Steroids
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Summary:Environmental transformation processes, including those occurring in natural and engineered systems, do not necessarily drastically alter molecular structures of bioactive organic contaminants. While the majority of generated transformation products are likely benign, substantial conservation of structure in transformation products can imply conservation or even creation of bioactivity across multiple biological end points and thus incomplete mitigation of ecological risk. Therefore, focusing solely on parent compound removal for contaminants of higher relative risk, the most common approach to fate characterization, provides no mechanistic relationship to potential biological effects and is inadequate as a comprehensive metric for reduction of ecological risks. Here, we explore these phenomena for endocrine-active steroid hormones, focusing on examples of conserved bioactivity and related implications for fate assessment, regulatory approaches, and research opportunities.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es503425w