Abstract
The presence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in drinking waters might pose a serious threat to human health worldwide. Therefore, this study sought to measure PhACs in Danube-derived tap water from the Budapest metropolitan region (Hungary), and to compare the results of those measured in the bank filtrate after which a human health risk assessment (based on human risk quotient [hRQ]) was conducted for the detected PhACs. A total of 108 samples were collected from 21 sampling sites throughout 6 sampling campaigns. Our study screened for 102 PhACs, of which 19 were detected in the persistently chlorinated tap water samples. PhAC concentrations were much lower than previously assumed based on the contamination of raw water resources. The total mean concentration of the analyzed PhACs exceeded 30 ng L−1 only at 5 sites. Moreover, the frequency of occurrence (FRO) of the 6 most common compounds (carbamazepine, lamotrigine, lidocaine, benzoylecgonine, tramadol, and cinolazepam) reached 50 % at 4 sites. The most frequent PhAC was carbamazepine (FRO = 53.7 %), the risk level of all PhACs investigated was negligible (hRQ<1) with carbamazepine having the highest hRQs (hRQMAX = 0.007; hRQMEAN = 0.001). Tap water provided lower PhAC concentrations farther from the water abstraction wells and treatment stations along the Danube. The travel time between the drinking water wells and taps with other factors, such as the varying microbiological pattern and the deposits in the supply system influence the PhAC concentrations. Based on the risk assessment, all investigated PhACs pose a negligible risk to consumers in the investigated urban area.
Highlights
Due to the increase in human pharmaceutical consumption, several pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) are released into the environment each day [1,2,3]
A total of 102 PhACs were monitored in this study with various physical chemical characteristics (Table S2), of which 19 PhACs were found to exceed the limit of quantification (LOQ) in the tap water samples (Table 1)
Surface water is efficiently filtered by the Riverbank filtration (RBF) and the majority of pollutants are removed, some PhACs can reach the supply system and reach the consumer’s tap
Summary
Due to the increase in human pharmaceutical consumption, several pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) are released into the environment each day [1,2,3]. PhACs generally occur at low concentrations in various environmental matrices (i.e., typically at the ng L− 1 or μg L− 1 level), the occurrence and risks of pharmaceuticals with their metabolites or conjugates in the environment is a growing worldwide concern [8,9,10]. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that adverse neurophysiological or genotoxic effects have been linked to certain groups of pharmaceuticals (e.g., antiepileptics, opiates), which. This study evaluated PhAC concentrations in river bank fil trated tap water, their potential seasonal changes, and their associated human health risk assessment (HHRA) in the Budapest metropolitan
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