Abstract
Multiple classes of environmental contaminants have been found in aquatic environments, globally. Understanding internalised concentrations in the organism could further improve the risk assessment process. The present study is concerned with the determination of several contaminant classes (107 compounds) in Gammarus pulex collected from 15 sites covering 5 river catchments across Suffolk, UK. Quantitative method performance was acceptable for 67 compounds including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, illicit drugs and drugs of abuse. A total of 56 compounds were detectable and ranged from <LOQ to 45.3 ng g−1, with cocaine and lidocaine being the most frequently detected compounds present in all biota samples (n = 66). For surface water, 50 compounds were detectable and ranged from <LOQ to 382.2 ng L−1. Additionally, some pesticides currently not approved for use were detected, including fenuron that reached a maximum of 16.1 ng g−1. The internal concentrations of pesticides were used to estimate toxic pressure which showed that for the measured pesticides toxic pressure was low ranging from logTU ≤−7 to ≤−2. This methodology was extended to pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse in a novel approach that proposed the use of pharmacological data (human therapeutic plasma concentrations) to estimate the likelihood of an effect (or effect pressure) to occur based on the internal exposure of the organism. The quantified effect pressure ranged from logEU ≤−9 to ≤1 with haloperidol showing the largest likelihood for an effect. The approach showed that several pharmaceuticals have the potential to elicit effects but further investigation surrounding thresholds for effects would be required. This new approach presented showed potential to be used to improve risk assessment for pharmaceuticals in the environment.
Highlights
The contamination of the aquatic environment has been the focus of many investigations and many issues have been identified with respect to a number of classes of compounds including pharmaceuticals (Miller et al, 2018) and plant protection products (Barceló, 1991)
Cocaine was the most widespread contaminant found in both surface water and biota samples, but no conclusions can be drawn about the potential for adverse effects of this compound without further work
The total body burden of the contaminants determined in the biota samples ranged from 6.5 ng g−1 to 163.5 ng g−1 dw depending on the site
Summary
The contamination of the aquatic environment has been the focus of many investigations and many issues have been identified with respect to a number of classes of compounds including pharmaceuticals (Miller et al, 2018) and plant protection products (pesticides) (Barceló, 1991)Within each class, adverse effects of some specific contaminants on biota have been well studied, effects and/or associated risks are often derived based on exposure concentration levels measured external to the organism (e.g., in water or sediment). A reason for this is that the determination of trace contaminants in biota has traditionally been very challenging, in terms of the analytical selectivity required to reliably separate hundreds of different compounds but to do so quantitatively at trace concentrations (e.g. pg-ng g−1) (Miller et al., 2018). Advances in analytical workflows have enabled trace quantitative measurements in complex biological matrices such that internalised contaminant concentrations can be used to set thresholds for effects (Dodder et al, 2014; Inostroza et al, 2016; Miller et al, 2015). Routine determination of internalised concentrations of pharmaceuticals in particular is still critically lacking (Miller et al., 2018). This is true for some other contaminant classes such as illicit
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