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Ecotoxicity screening evaluation of selected pharmaceuticals and their transformation products towards various organisms

Authors :
Alan Puckowski
Magdalena Pazda
Anna Białk-Bielińska
Stefan Stolte
Piotr Stepnowski
Łukasz Grabarczyk
Ewa Mulkiewicz
Source :
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, Environmental Science and Pollution Research International
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.

Abstract

The intensive development of medical science has led to an increase in the availability and use of pharmaceutical products. However, nowadays, most of scientific attention has been paid to the native forms of pharmaceuticals, while the transformation products (TPs) of these substances, understood herein as metabolites, degradation products, and selected enantiomers, remain largely unexplored in terms of their characterization, presence, fate and effects within the natural environment. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to evaluate the toxicity of seven native compounds belonging to different therapeutic groups (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioid analgesics, beta-blockers, antibacterial and anti-epileptic drugs), along with the toxicity of their 13 most important TPs. For this purpose, an ecotoxicological test battery, consisting of five organisms of different biological organization was used. The obtained data shows that, in general, the toxicity of TPs to the tested organisms was similar or lower compared to their parent compounds. However, for example, significantly higher toxicity of the R form of ibuprofen to algae and duckweed, as well as a higher toxicity of the R form of naproxen to luminescent bacteria, was observed, proving that the risk associated with the presence of drug TPs in the environment should not be neglected. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-020-08881-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Details

ISSN :
16147499 and 09441344
Volume :
27
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....c65ca0a284475cc0ce61a339719fd5e4
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08881-3