Using the fish plasma model to evaluate potential effects of pharmaceuticals in effluent from a large urban wastewater treatment plant

Abstract

Several pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were evaluated using the fish plasma model (FPM) for juvenile Chinook salmon exposed to effluent from a large urban wastewater treatment plant. The FPM compares fish plasma concentrations to therapeutic values determined in human plasma as an indication of potential adverse effects. We used human Cmax values, which are the maximum plasma concentration for a minimum therapeutic dose. Observed and predicted plasma concentrations from juvenile Chinook salmon exposed to a dilution series of whole wastewater effluent were compared to 1%Cmax values to determine Response Ratios (RR) ([plasma]/1%Cmax) for assessment of possible adverse effects. Several PPCPs were found to approach or exceed an RR of 1, indicating potential effects in fish. We also predicted plasma concentrations from measured water concentrations and determined that several of the values were close to or below the analytical reporting limit (RL) indicating potential plasma concentrations for a large number of PPCPs that were below detection. Additionally, the 1%Cmax was less than the RL for several analytes, which could impede predictions of possible effect concentrations. A comparison of observed and predicted plasma concentrations found that observed values were frequently much higher than values predicted with water concentrations, especially for low log10Dow compounds. The observed versus predicted values using the human volume of distribution (Vd), were generally much closer in agreement. These data appear to support the selection of whole-body concentrations to predict plasma values, which relies more on estimating simple partitioning within the fish instead of uptake via water. Overall, these observations highlight the frequently underestimated predicted plasma concentrations and potential to cause adverse effects in fish. Using measured plasma concentrations or predicted values from whole-body concentrations along with improved prediction models and reductions in analytical detection limits will foster more accurate risk assessments of pharmaceutical exposure for fish.