Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Rethinking Subthreshold Effects in Regulatory Chemical Risk Assessments

A great number of dose–response studies indicate that hormesis is a common phenomenon, occurring in numerous organisms exposed to singular or combined environmental stressors, such as pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, micro/nanoplastics, organic flame retardants, pesticides, and rare earths. (1−6) While biological responses to low exposure levels are often beneficial, exposure to doses below the no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL; hereafter subthreshold doses) does not always translate to beneficial responses. (2,4) For example, subthreshold contaminant doses can enhance the virulence of phytopathogenic microbes and promote the resistance of crop pests with significant implications for crop production. (2,7,8) Subthreshold contaminant exposures can also stimulate infectious animal/human pathogens and promote their resistance to antibiotics and other drugs, threatening long-term sustainability. Importantly, the hormetic function of common pathways that regulate cancer progress indicate that current regulatory standards may not protect adequately against cancer risks. (9−11)We are grateful to Dr. Patrick H. Brown, Distinguished Professor of Plant Science at the University of California, Davis, U.S.A., and Dr. Adrian Covaci, Professor of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, for comments and suggestions on an early draft of the paper. This study did not receive a specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. E.A. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 4210070867), The Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), Nanjing, China (No. 003080), and the Jiangsu Distinguished Professor program of the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province. E.J.C. acknowledges longtime support from the U.S. Air Force (AFOSR FA9550-13-1-0047) and ExxonMobil Foundation (S18200000000256). The sponsors were not involved in the study design; the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data; the preparation of the manuscript or the decision where to submit the manuscript for publication. All authors hold senior editorial positions in various scientific journals. The views presented herein are those of the authors and do not represent views of journals’ editorial board as a unit, journals’ editorial office, journals themselves or their publishers, authors’ institutions, or scientific societies where authors hold senior positions.Peer reviewe

Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.N

Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals