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Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers

Wilkinson JL 1 , Boxall ABA 2 , Kolpin DW 3 , Leung KMY 4 , Lai RWS 4 , Galbán-Malagón C 5 Show all authors , Adell AD 6 , Mondon J 7 , Metian M 8 , Marchant RA 2 , Bouzas-Monroy A 2 , Cuni-Sanchez A 2 , Coors A 9 , Carriquiriborde P 10 , Rojo M 10 , Gordon C 11 , Cara M 12 , Moermond M 13 , Luarte T 14 , Petrosyan V 15 , Perikhanyan Y 15 , Mahon CS 16 , McGurk CJ 16 , Hofmann T 17 , Kormoker T 18 , Iniguez V 19 , Guzman-Otazo J 20 , Tavares JL 21 , Gildasio De Figueiredo F 21 , Razzolini MTP 22 , Dougnon V 23 , Gbaguidi G 24 , Traoré O 25 , Blais JM 26 , Kimpe LE 26 , Wong M 27 , Wong D 27 , Ntchantcho R 28 , Pizarro J 29 , Ying GG 30 , Chen CE 30 , Páez M 31 , Martínez-Lara J 31 , Otamonga JP 32 , Poté J 33 , Ifo SA 34 , Wilson P 35 , Echeverría-Sáenz S 36 , Udikovic-Kolic N 37 , Milakovic M 37 , Fatta-Kassinos D 38 , Ioannou-Ttofa L 38 , Belušová V 39 , Vymazal J 39 , Cárdenas-Bustamante M 2 , Kassa BA 40 , Garric J 41 , Chaumot A 41 , Gibba P 42 , Kunchulia I 43 , Seidensticker S 44 , Lyberatos G 45 , Halldórsson HP 46 , Melling M 2 , Shashidhar T 47 , Lamba M 48 , Nastiti A 49 , Supriatin A 49 , Pourang N 50 , Abedini A 50 , Abdullah O 2 , Gharbia SS 51 , Pilla F 52 , Chefetz B 53 , Topaz T 53 , Yao KM 54 , Aubakirova B 55 , Beisenova R 56 , Olaka L 57 , Mulu JK 57 , Chatanga P 58 , Ntuli V 58 , Blama NT 59 , Sherif S 59 , Aris AZ 60 , Looi LJ 60 , Niang M 61 , Traore ST 61 , Oldenkamp R 62 , Ogunbanwo O 63 , Ashfaq M 64 , Iqbal M 64 , Abdeen Z 65 , O'Dea A 66 , Morales-Saldaña JM 66 , Custodio M 67 , de la Cruz H 67 , Navarrete I 68 , Carvalho F 69 , Gogra AB 70 , Koroma BM 70 , Cerkvenik-Flajs V 71 , Gombač M 71 , Thwala M 72 , Choi K 73 , Kang H 73 , Ladu JLC 74 , Rico A 75 , Amerasinghe P 76 , Sobek A 77 , Horlitz G 77 , Zenker AK 78 , King AC 78 , Jiang JJ 79 , Kariuki R 2 , Tumbo M 80 , Tezel U 81 , Onay TT 81 , Lejju JB 82 , Vystavna Y 83 , Vergeles Y 84 , Heinzen H 85 , Pérez-Parada A 86 , Sims DB 87 , Figy M 27 , Good D 88 , Teta C 89

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom; john.wilkinson@york.ac.uk
  • 2 Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
  • 3 US Geological Survey, Central Midwest Water Science Center, Iowa City, IA 52240
  • 4 State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
  • 5 Center for Genomics, Ecology & Environment, Universidad Mayor, 8580745 Santiago, Chile
  • 6 Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, 8370035 Santiago, Chile
  • 7 Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Warrnambool 3280 VIC, Australia
  • 8 Environment Laboratories, International Atomic Energy Agency, 98000 Monaco, Principality of Monaco
  • 9 ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH, 65439 Flörsheim am Main, Germany
  • 10 Centro de Investigaciones del Medioambiente, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina, CP 1900 La Plata Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 11 Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, Accra LG 1181, Ghana
  • 12 Plant Protection Department, Agricultural University of Tirana, Tirana 1000, Albania
  • 13 School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
  • 14 Doctorado en Medicina de la Conservación, Facultad Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, 7550196 Santiago, Chile
  • 15 Faculty of Chemistry, Center for Ecological Safety, Yerevan State University, 0025 Yerevan, Armenia
  • 16 School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney 2006 NSW, Australia
  • 17 Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
  • 18 Department of Emergency Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, 8602 Patuakhali, Bangladesh
  • 19 Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Institute, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, 6042 La Paz, Bolivia
  • 20 Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 171 77, Sweden
  • 21 Instituto Federal De Educacao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte, 1692 Natal, Brazil
  • 22 Center for Research in Environmental Risk Assessment, School of Public Health of University of Sao Paulo, 01246-904 Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • 23 Research Unit in Applied Microbiology and Pharmacology of Natural Substances, Research Laboratory in Applied Biology, Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi, University of Abomey-Calavi, BP 526 Abomey Calavi, Benin
  • 24 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Abomey-Calavi, BP 526 Abomey Calavi, Benin
  • 25 Sciences Appliquées et Technologies, Université de Dédougou, Ouagadougou BP 176, Burkina Faso
  • 26 Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
  • 27 Global Monitoring of Pharmaceutical Consortium, York YO10 5NG, United Kingdom
  • 28 Centre de Recherches Hydrologiques, l'Institut de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, BP 4110 Yaounde, Cameroon
  • 29 Departamento de Ingeniería Geográfica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, 9170022 Santiago, Chile
  • 30 Environmental Research Institute, School of Environment, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China
  • 31 Department of Chemistry, Universidad del Valle, Cali 25360, Colombia
  • 32 National Pedagogical University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa 8815, Democratic Republic of Congo
  • 33 Faculty of Sciences, Department F.-A. Forel for Environmental and Aquatic Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva 1205, Switzerland
  • 34 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Departement des Sciences et Vie de la Terre, Université Marien Ngouabi, BP 69 Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
  • 35 Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment, Kingston University London, KT2 7LB Kingston, United Kingdom
  • 36 Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic Substances, Universidad Nacional, 40101 Heredia, Costa Rica
  • 37 Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
  • 38 Nireas International Water Research Center, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nocosia 1678, Cyprus
  • 39 Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 40 Institute of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1176, Ethiopia
  • 41 Laboratory of Ecotoxicology, lnstitut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
  • 42 Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Fisheries & Water Resources, Banjul, The Gambia
  • 43 Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Biosystems Engineering, Georgian Technical University, 380075 Tbilisi, Georgia
  • 44 Center for Applied Geoscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72074, Germany
  • 45 School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 10682 Athens, Greece
  • 46 Research Centre in Sudurnes, University of Iceland, Reykjavík 600169, Iceland
  • 47 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Hyderabad 502285, India
  • 48 Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, 110016 New Delhi, India
  • 49 Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Management Technology Research Group, 40132 Bandung, Indonesia
  • 50 Education and Extension Organization, Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Tehran 1588733111, Iran
  • 51 Department of Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Dublin D14 E099, Ireland
  • 52 Spatial Dynamics Lab, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • 53 Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9190501 Jerusalem, Israel
  • 54 Centre de Recherches Oceanologiques, 7XP 56V Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
  • 55 School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan
  • 56 L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, 010000 Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
  • 57 Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
  • 58 Department of Biology, National of University of Lesotho, Maseru 180, Lesotho
  • 59 Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia, 1000 Monrovia, Liberia
  • 60 Department of Environment, International Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
  • 61 Centre d'Expertise et de Recherche en Télémédecine et E-Santé, Centre Hospitalier Mère - Enfant, Le Luxembourg, Hamdallaye, Bamako, Mali
  • 62 Department of Global Health-Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, Amsterdam Universty Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1012 WX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 63 Department of Fisheries Technology, Ecotoxicology Research Laboratory, Lagos State Polytechnic, 100001 Ikorodu, Nigeria
  • 64 Department of Chemistry, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan
  • 65 Al-Quds Nutrition and Health Research Institute, Al-Quds University, Abu Dies, West Bank, Palestine
  • 66 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City 0843-03092, Republic of Panama
  • 67 Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad Nacional del Centro del Peru, 12004 Huancayo, Peru
  • 68 Department of Environmental Science, Southern Leyte State University-Hinunangan Campus, 6608 Hinunangan, Philippines
  • 69 Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom
  • 70 Department of Chemistry, School of Environmental Sciences, Njala University, Bo, Sierra Leone
  • 71 Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, SI 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 72 Water Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 0184 Pretoria, South Africa
  • 73 Seoul National University, 599 Seoul, South Korea
  • 74 College of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan
  • 75 IMDEA Water Institute, Science and Technology Campus, University of Alcalá, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Spain
  • 76 International Water Management Institute, Colombo 10120, Sri Lanka
  • 77 Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden
  • 78 Institute for Ecopreneurship, School of Life Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, 4132 Muttenz, Switzerland
  • 79 Department of Environmental Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, 320 Taoyuan, Taiwan
  • 80 Institute of Resources Assessment, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  • 81 Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, 34342 Istanbul, Turkey
  • 82 Faculty of Science, Mbarara University of Science & Technology, 9MM5 6GF Mbarara, Uganda
  • 83 Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Ceske 37005 Budejovice, Czech Republic
  • 84 Department of the Environment, O. M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv, 61002 Kharkiv, Ukraine
  • 85 Faculty of Chemistry, Universidad de la República, 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay
  • 86 Departamento de Desarrollo Tecnológico, Centro Universitario Regional del Este, Universidad de la República, CP 27000, Rocha, Uruguay
  • 87 School of Science & Mathematics, College of Southern Nevada, Henderson, NV 89002
  • 88 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
  • 89 Future Water Research Institute, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, University of Cape Town, 7700 Cape Town, South Africa
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2022 Feb 22;119(8).
PMID: 35165193 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2113947119

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.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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