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Pharmaceuticals and Hormones in the Environment
Citation:
JONES-LEPP, T. L., D. A. Alvarez, B. Englert, AND A. BATT. Pharmaceuticals and Hormones in the Environment. R A Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry: Applications, Theory, and Instrumentation. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, New York, NY, 75(1):1-59, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
Some of the earliest reports from Europe and the United States demonstrated that a variety of pharmaceuticals and hormones could be found in surface waters, source waters, drinking water, and influents and effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).1,2,3 Regarding pharmaceuticals and hormones in the environment, there are a few insightful reviews covering general topic knowledge, analytical methods, and reports of occurrence of pharmaceuticals and hormones in the literature.4-16 It is unknown though, at this time, what ecotoxicological effects can be had from pharmaceuticals and hormones that are essentially designed for one purpose - treatment of human and domestic livestock for illness and disease. There are real concerns of adverse impacts on wildlife, aquatic organisms, bacteria, and ultimately humans, through unintentional exposure to pharmaceuticals and hormones via environmental contact. For example, there are reports of feminization of male fish that swim in wastewater effluents, increases in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are found in wastewater effluents, and acute toxicity and genotoxicity to aquatic organisms upon exposure (via water) to several antibiotics.17-21 One early paper by Siegel (1959), showed that humans who were unintentionally exposed to environmentally persistent aerosols of penicillin developed anaphylactic shock. 22 A recent paper by Kidd et al. (2007) demonstrated that wild fish populations can collapse in just 2 years when consistently exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations (< 5-6 ng L-1) of ethinylestradiol. 23.
Description:
Some of the earliest initial reports from Europe and the United States demonstrated that a variety of pharmaceuticals and hormones could be found in surface waters, source waters, drinking water, and influents and effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). It is unknown though, at this time, what ecotoxicological effects can be had from pharmaceuticals and hormones that are essentially designed for one purpose (e.g., treatment of human and domestic livestock for illness and disease) and their possible adverse effects on terrestrial wildlife, aquatic organisms, bacteria, and ultimately humans, through unintentional environmental exposure. One of the challenges the analytical chemistry community faces is the development of robust and standardized analytical methods and technologies that can easily be transferred to laboratories worldwide. While today’s analysts can detect pg L-1 and ng L-1 concentrations of numerous pharmaceuticals, hormones, and their metabolites, in a variety of environmental matrices, there are still analytical gaps that are necessary to fill. We hope that this article will add to the body of knowledge of environmental analytical chemistry techniques regarding pharmaceuticals and hormones; giving environmental scientists a good overview of those analytical techniques that are currently available, and where possible, improvements and new methodologies that can be developed in support of this important, and relevant, environmental issue.
URLs/Downloads:
PHARMACEUTICALS AND HORMONES IN THE ENVIRONMENT
JONES 08-114 FINAL JOURNAL ARTICLE.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 503 KB, about PDF)