NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES  Pharmaceuticals in Water  https://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/2017-10-17-prioritisation_of_p...

NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES  Pharmaceuticals in Water  https://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/2017-10-17-prioritisation_of_pharmaceuticals.htmlThe presence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic systems in the United States and Europe is well documented. Pharmaceuticals are designed to induce a biochemical response at very low concentrations, raising questions regarding the risk for unintended sublethal effects in exposed non-target organisms.There are approximately 3,500 compounds currently being evaluated for pharmaceutical production in the United States and more than 1,400 pharmaceuticals that had obtained Food and Drug Administration approval as of the end of 2013. Acute ecotoxicity data are available for only a small portion of these compounds, and chronic toxicity data are even scarcer. In addition, little is known about the ultimate environmental fate of most pharmaceuticals.As part of an international study investigating urban contaminants, targeted monitoring was done in a single snapshot for 95 pharmaceuticals at 8 sites on the Rivers Foss and Ouse in the City of York, United Kingdom, during medium flow conditions. Twenty-five pharmaceuticals were detected in the water samples collected. The predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were estimated for the 25 detected pharmaceuticals and compared with measured environmental concentrations (MECs) in collected river samples.A comparison of PECs to MECs indicates relative similarity in the smaller River Foss but not in the larger River Ouse. The demographics within the River Foss watershed are well defined, whereas the area within the River Ouse watershed has more complex demographics, such as inputs from tourism or post-secondary institutions, which may influence wastewater loading estimates used in the PEC estimations.This study is part of a larger effort of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Environmental Health Mission Area to provide information that will help resource managers understand how to effectively minimize potential risks to the health of humans and other organisms exposed to pharmaceuticals and other chemicals through recreation, drinking water, and other exposure routes.This study will also be linked on the 2018 Reports Page 02 of the Sustainable Water Resources Site at https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/Tim Smith, Sustainable Water Resources CoordinatorGovernment Web Site, https://acwi.gov/Sustainable Water Resources Site, https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources