Pharmaceutical pollution of the world’s rivers

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• University College Dublin IE
• Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo BF
• Université Pédagogique Nationale CD
• South China Normal University CN
• National University of Lesotho LS
• Deakin University AU
• Universidad Mayor de San Andrés BO
• Yerevan State University AM
• University of Gujrat PK
• University of Ghana GH
• Universidade de São Paulo BR
• Kingston University GB
• ECT Oekotoxikologie (Germany) DE
• Karolinska Institutet SE
• University of Amsterdam NL
• Ministry of Health and Social Welfare GM
• Marien Ngouabi University CG
• Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development NL
• Universidad del Valle CO
• Universidad de Santiago de Chile CL
• Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad IN
• Imperial College London GB
• Patuakhali Science and Technology University BD
• Central Midwest Water Science Center
• The University of Sydney AU
• Indian Institute of Technology Delhi IN
• Nazarbayev University KZ
• Lancaster University GB
• City University of Hong Kong HK
• University of Tübingen DE
• Université d'Abomey-Calavi BJ
• University of Cyprus CY
• Universidad Mayor CL
• University of Kinshasa CD
• Center for Marine and Oceanographic Research CI
• Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement FR
• University of Geneva CH
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute PA
• Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas AR
• Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú PE
• Universiti Putra Malaysia MY
• Institut de Recherches Géologiques et Minières CM
• Georgian Technical University GE
• Rudjer Boskovic Institute HR
• University of Vienna AT
• National Technical University of Athens GR
• University of Iceland IS
• Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Norte BR
• Al-Quds University PS
• Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran IR
• Southern Leyte State University PH
• University of York GB
• International University of Monaco MC
• University of Nairobi KE
• Universidad Andrés Bello CL
• United States Geological Survey US
• L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University KZ
• Czech University of Life Sciences Prague CZ
• University of Ottawa CA
• Addis Ababa University ET
• Njala University SL
• Agricultural University of Tirana AL
• Lagos State Polytechnic NG
• Universidad Nacional CR
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem IL

Related Publications