Abstract
BackgroundIn recent years, there are growing concerns about pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in natural ecosystems. These compounds have been found in natural waters and in fish tissues worldwide. Regarding their growing distribution and abundance, it is becoming clear that traditionally used risk assessment methodologies and ecotoxicological studies have limitations in several respects. In our study a new, combined approach of environmental impact assesment of PhACs has been used.MethodsIn this study, the constant watercourses of the suburban region of the Hungarian capital (Budapest) were sampled, and the body shape and scale shape of three fish species (roach Rutilus rutilus, chub Squalius cephalus, gibel carp Carassius gibelio) found in these waters were analyzed, based on landmark-based geometric morphometric methods. Possible connections were made between the differences in body shape and scale shape, and abiotic environmental variables (local- and landscape-scale) and measured PhACs.ResultsSignificant connections were found between shape and PhACs concentrations in several cases. Despite the relatively large number of compounds (54) detected, citalopram, propranolol, codeine and trimetazidine significantly affected only fish body and scale shape, based on their concentrations. These four PhACs were shown to be high (citalopram), medium (propranolol and codeine), and low (trimetazidine) risk levels during the environmental risk assessment, which were based on Risk Quotient calculation. Furthermore, seven PhACs (diclofenac, Estrone (E1), tramadol, caffeine 17α-Ethinylestradiol (EE2), 17α-Estradiol (aE2), Estriol (E3)) were also categorized with a high risk level. However, our morphological studies indicated that only citalopram was found to affect fish phenotype amongst the PhACs posing high risk. Therefore, our results revealed that the output of (traditional) environmental/ecological risk assessment based on ecotoxicological data of different aquatic organisms not necessarily show consistency with a “real-life” situation; furthermore, the morphological investigations may also be a good sub-lethal endpoint in ecotoxicological assessments.
Highlights
The first detection of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in aquatic ecosystems and drinking water dates back to the 1980s (Richardson & Bowron, 1985; Watts et al, 1983)
Three compounds were detected in a μg/l concentration range in examined samples, lamotrigine, caffeine, and diclofenac
A total of 27 PhACs were used in analysis based on their risk quotient (RQ)-values, from which eight showed high, eight showed medium and the remaining eleven PhACs received a low risk classification based on the environmental risk assessment (Table 3)
Summary
The first detection of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in aquatic ecosystems and drinking water dates back to the 1980s (Richardson & Bowron, 1985; Watts et al, 1983). Several weaknesses of these regulations have been reported in scientific articles (Ankley et al, 2007; Boxall et al, 2012) such as: (1) official tests usually use lethal endpoints, (2) little attention is paid to metabolites, (3) different regulations for human and for veterinary drugs, (4) tests for unique agents, (5) calculating the degradation of compounds and (6) overabundant compounds (over 4.000 drug substances) to test all of them These weaknesses and the resulting shortcomings in risk assessment procedures may cause uncertainties regarding their validity. Despite the relatively large number of compounds (54) detected, citalopram, propranolol, codeine and trimetazidine significantly affected only fish body and scale shape, based on their concentrations These four PhACs were shown to be high (citalopram), medium (propranolol and codeine), and low (trimetazidine) risk levels during the environmental risk assessment, which were based on Risk Quotient calculation. Our morphological studies indicated that only citalopram was found to affect fish phenotype amongst
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