Occurrence and potential risks of pharmaceutical contamination in global Estuaries: A critical review and analysis

Demilade T Adedipe; Chong Chen; Racliffe Weng Seng Lai; Shaopeng Xu; Qiong Luo; Guang-Jie Zhou; Alistair Boxall; Bryan W Brooks; Martina A Doblin; Xinhong Wang; Juying Wang; Kenneth Mei Yee Leung

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2024.109031

Occurrence and potential risks of pharmaceutical contamination in global Estuaries: A critical review and analysis

Demilade T Adedipe, Chong Chen, Racliffe Weng Seng Lai, Shaopeng Xu, Qiong Luo, Guang-Jie Zhou, Alistair Boxall, Bryan W Brooks, Martina A Doblin, Xinhong Wang, Juying Wang, Kenneth Mei Yee Leung

Environment and Geography

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Input of pollutants to estuaries is one of the major threats to marine biodiversity and fishery resources, and pharmaceuticals are one of the most important contaminants of emerging concern in aquatic ecosystems. To synthesize pharmaceutical pollution levels in estuaries over the past 20 years from a global perspective, this review identified 3229 individual environmental occurrence data for 239 pharmaceuticals across 91 global estuaries distributed in 26 countries. The highest cumulative weighted average concentration level (WACL) of all detected pharmaceuticals in estuarine water was observed in Africa (145,461.86 ng/L), with 30 pharmaceuticals reported. North America (24,316.39 ng/L) was ranked second in terms of WACL, followed by South America (20,784.13 ng/L), Asia (5958.38 ng/L), Europe (4691.23 ng/L), and Oceania (2916.32 ng/L). Carbamazepine, diclofenac, and paracetamol were detected in all continents. A total of 41 functional categories of pharmaceuticals were identified, and analgesics, antibiotics, and stimulants were amongst the most ubiquitous groups in estuaries worldwide. Although many pharmaceuticals were observed to present lower than or equal to moderate ecological risk, 34 pharmaceuticals were identified with high or very high ecological risks in at least one continent. Pharmaceutical pollution in estuaries was positively correlated with regional unemployment and poverty ratios, but negatively correlated with life expectancy and GDP per capita. There are some limitations that may affect this synthesis, such as comparability of the sampling and pretreatment methodology, differences in the target pharmaceuticals for monitoring, and potentially limited number and diversity of estuaries covered, which prompt us to standardize methods for monitoring these pharmaceutical contaminants in future global studies.

Original language	English
Article number	109031
Number of pages	11
Journal	Environment International
Volume	192
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.109031
Publication status	Published - 24 Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis
Estuaries
Environmental Monitoring
Pharmaceutical Preparations/analysis
Risk Assessment

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Cite this

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title = "Occurrence and potential risks of pharmaceutical contamination in global Estuaries: A critical review and analysis",

abstract = "Input of pollutants to estuaries is one of the major threats to marine biodiversity and fishery resources, and pharmaceuticals are one of the most important contaminants of emerging concern in aquatic ecosystems. To synthesize pharmaceutical pollution levels in estuaries over the past 20 years from a global perspective, this review identified 3229 individual environmental occurrence data for 239 pharmaceuticals across 91 global estuaries distributed in 26 countries. The highest cumulative weighted average concentration level (WACL) of all detected pharmaceuticals in estuarine water was observed in Africa (145,461.86 ng/L), with 30 pharmaceuticals reported. North America (24,316.39 ng/L) was ranked second in terms of WACL, followed by South America (20,784.13 ng/L), Asia (5958.38 ng/L), Europe (4691.23 ng/L), and Oceania (2916.32 ng/L). Carbamazepine, diclofenac, and paracetamol were detected in all continents. A total of 41 functional categories of pharmaceuticals were identified, and analgesics, antibiotics, and stimulants were amongst the most ubiquitous groups in estuaries worldwide. Although many pharmaceuticals were observed to present lower than or equal to moderate ecological risk, 34 pharmaceuticals were identified with high or very high ecological risks in at least one continent. Pharmaceutical pollution in estuaries was positively correlated with regional unemployment and poverty ratios, but negatively correlated with life expectancy and GDP per capita. There are some limitations that may affect this synthesis, such as comparability of the sampling and pretreatment methodology, differences in the target pharmaceuticals for monitoring, and potentially limited number and diversity of estuaries covered, which prompt us to standardize methods for monitoring these pharmaceutical contaminants in future global studies.",

keywords = "Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis, Estuaries, Environmental Monitoring, Pharmaceutical Preparations/analysis, Risk Assessment",

author = "Adedipe, {Demilade T} and Chong Chen and Lai, {Racliffe Weng Seng} and Shaopeng Xu and Qiong Luo and Guang-Jie Zhou and Alistair Boxall and Brooks, {Bryan W} and Doblin, {Martina A} and Xinhong Wang and Juying Wang and Leung, {Kenneth Mei Yee}",

year = "2024",

month = sep,

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doi = "10.1016/j.envint.2024.109031",

language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Occurrence and potential risks of pharmaceutical contamination in global Estuaries

T2 - A critical review and analysis

AU - Adedipe, Demilade T

AU - Chen, Chong

AU - Lai, Racliffe Weng Seng

AU - Xu, Shaopeng

AU - Luo, Qiong

AU - Zhou, Guang-Jie

AU - Boxall, Alistair

AU - Brooks, Bryan W

AU - Doblin, Martina A

AU - Wang, Xinhong

AU - Wang, Juying

AU - Leung, Kenneth Mei Yee

PY - 2024/9/24

Y1 - 2024/9/24

N2 - Input of pollutants to estuaries is one of the major threats to marine biodiversity and fishery resources, and pharmaceuticals are one of the most important contaminants of emerging concern in aquatic ecosystems. To synthesize pharmaceutical pollution levels in estuaries over the past 20 years from a global perspective, this review identified 3229 individual environmental occurrence data for 239 pharmaceuticals across 91 global estuaries distributed in 26 countries. The highest cumulative weighted average concentration level (WACL) of all detected pharmaceuticals in estuarine water was observed in Africa (145,461.86 ng/L), with 30 pharmaceuticals reported. North America (24,316.39 ng/L) was ranked second in terms of WACL, followed by South America (20,784.13 ng/L), Asia (5958.38 ng/L), Europe (4691.23 ng/L), and Oceania (2916.32 ng/L). Carbamazepine, diclofenac, and paracetamol were detected in all continents. A total of 41 functional categories of pharmaceuticals were identified, and analgesics, antibiotics, and stimulants were amongst the most ubiquitous groups in estuaries worldwide. Although many pharmaceuticals were observed to present lower than or equal to moderate ecological risk, 34 pharmaceuticals were identified with high or very high ecological risks in at least one continent. Pharmaceutical pollution in estuaries was positively correlated with regional unemployment and poverty ratios, but negatively correlated with life expectancy and GDP per capita. There are some limitations that may affect this synthesis, such as comparability of the sampling and pretreatment methodology, differences in the target pharmaceuticals for monitoring, and potentially limited number and diversity of estuaries covered, which prompt us to standardize methods for monitoring these pharmaceutical contaminants in future global studies.

AB - Input of pollutants to estuaries is one of the major threats to marine biodiversity and fishery resources, and pharmaceuticals are one of the most important contaminants of emerging concern in aquatic ecosystems. To synthesize pharmaceutical pollution levels in estuaries over the past 20 years from a global perspective, this review identified 3229 individual environmental occurrence data for 239 pharmaceuticals across 91 global estuaries distributed in 26 countries. The highest cumulative weighted average concentration level (WACL) of all detected pharmaceuticals in estuarine water was observed in Africa (145,461.86 ng/L), with 30 pharmaceuticals reported. North America (24,316.39 ng/L) was ranked second in terms of WACL, followed by South America (20,784.13 ng/L), Asia (5958.38 ng/L), Europe (4691.23 ng/L), and Oceania (2916.32 ng/L). Carbamazepine, diclofenac, and paracetamol were detected in all continents. A total of 41 functional categories of pharmaceuticals were identified, and analgesics, antibiotics, and stimulants were amongst the most ubiquitous groups in estuaries worldwide. Although many pharmaceuticals were observed to present lower than or equal to moderate ecological risk, 34 pharmaceuticals were identified with high or very high ecological risks in at least one continent. Pharmaceutical pollution in estuaries was positively correlated with regional unemployment and poverty ratios, but negatively correlated with life expectancy and GDP per capita. There are some limitations that may affect this synthesis, such as comparability of the sampling and pretreatment methodology, differences in the target pharmaceuticals for monitoring, and potentially limited number and diversity of estuaries covered, which prompt us to standardize methods for monitoring these pharmaceutical contaminants in future global studies.

KW - Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis

KW - Estuaries

KW - Environmental Monitoring

KW - Pharmaceutical Preparations/analysis

KW - Risk Assessment

U2 - 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109031

DO - 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109031

M3 - Review article

C2 - 39321536

SN - 0160-4120

VL - 192

JO - Environment International

JF - Environment International

M1 - 109031

ER -