Status of pharmaceuticals in the Korle Lagoon and their toxicity to non-target organisms

The availability of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in surface waters and suspended solids/sediments presents an ecological hazard of chronic exposure to non-target organisms. Thus, water and sediment samples were collected from the Korle Lagoon in the west of Accra-Ghana city center to evaluate 35 medicinal drugs belonging to the main therapeutic classes and their toxicity to non-target organisms (i.e., fish, daphnid, and algae). High-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was employed to analyze the levels of PhACs in the samples. PhACs levels in water samples were higher compared to PhACs levels in sediment samples. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, tramadol, and Diclofenac were the PhACs that showed a higher frequency of detections and higher average concentrations. Diazepam, mefenamic acid, indomethacin, gemfibrozil, and glibenclamide exhibited a higher frequency of detections, but their average concentrations in both sample types were lower. The calculated risk index values for acetaminophen and ibuprofen suggested low ecological risks to fish, while tramadol showed medium to high ecological risks to daphnid. In contrast, acetaminophen and fenofibrate showed low ecological risks to daphnid. Additionally, the risk index values for fenofibrate suggested medium to high ecological risks to algae, while tramadol exhibited low ecological risks to algae. The other PhACs showed negligible ecological risks to non-target organisms. The calculated toxic unit values for each sampled site suggested a medium adverse ecological risk to non-target organisms. Based on the results obtained, the availability of PhACs in the studied area will have adverse effects on studied non-target organisms. The negative impacts of PhACs on non-target organisms may cause an imbalance in the food chain process, leading to a decrease in fish production and a reduction in fish quality. The result of this study is evidence of public health threat because the accumulation of PhACs in fish species may also cause some kinds of hormonal, chemical, and molecular changes within the various systems of the fishes to be toxic or unpleasant for humans' consumption.