Selected Pharmaceuticals in Different Aquatic Compartments: Part I-Source, Fate and Occurrence

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, André
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Silva, Liliana, Laranjeiro, Célia S. M., Lino, Celeste M., Pena, Angelina
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules25051026
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/106462; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25051026
• topic: environmental contaminants; pharmaceuticals occurrence; pharmaceuticals; aquatic compartments; Humans; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Risk Assessment; Rivers; Wastewater; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Water Purification; Environmental Monitoring

Potential risks associated with releases of human pharmaceuticals into the environment have become an increasingly important issue in environmental health. This concern has been driven by the widespread detection of pharmaceuticals in all aquatic compartments. Therefore, 22 pharmaceuticals, 6 metabolites and transformation products, belonging to 7 therapeutic groups, were selected to perform a systematic review on their source, fate and occurrence in different aquatic compartments, important issues to tackle the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The results obtained evidence that concentrations of pharmaceuticals are present, in decreasing order, in wastewater influents (WWIs), wastewater effluents (WWEs) and surface waters, with values up to 14 mg L-1 for ibuprofen in WWIs. The therapeutic groups which presented higher detection frequencies and concentrations were anti-inflammatories, antiepileptics, antibiotics and lipid regulators. These results present a broad and specialized background, enabling a complete overview on the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic compartments.