Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers

Wilkinson, John L.; Boxall, Alistair B. A.; Kolpin, Dana W.; Leung, Kenneth M. Y.; Lai, Racliffe W. S.; Galban-Malagon, Cristobal; Adell, Aiko D.; Mondon, Julie; Metian, Marc; Marchant, Robert A.; Bouzas-Monroy, Alejandra; Cuni-Sanchez, Aida; Coors, Anja; Carriquiriborde, Pedro; Rojo, Macarena; Gordon, Chris; Cara, Magdalena; Moermond, Monique; Luarte, Thais; Petrosyan, Vahagn; Perikhanyan, Yekaterina; Mahon, Clare S.; McGurk, Christopher J.; Hofmann, Thilo; Kormoker, Tapos; Iniguez, Volga; Guzman-Otazo, Jessica; Tavares, Jean L.; De Figueiredo, Francisco Gildasio; Razzolini, Maria T. P.; Dougnon, Victorien; Gbaguidi, Gildas; Traore, Oumar; Blais, Jules M.; Kimpe, Linda E.; Wong, Michelle; Wong, Donald; Ntchantcho, Romaric; Pizarro, Jaime; Ying, Guang-Guo; Chen, Chang-Er; Paez, Martha; Martinez-Lara, Jina; Otamonga, Jean-Paul; Pote, John; Ifo, Suspense A.; Wilson, Penelope; Udikovic-Kolic, Nikolina; Milakovic, Milena; Fatta-Kassinos, Despo; Ioannou-Ttofa, Lida; Vymazal, Jan; Kassa, Bayable A.; Garric, Jeanne; Chaumot, Arnaud; Gibba, Peter; Kunchulia, Ilia; Seidensticker, Sven; Lyberatos, Gerasimos; Halldorsson, Halldor P.; Melling, Molly; Shashidhar, Thatikonda; Lamba, Manisha; Nastiti, Anindrya; Supriatin, Adee; Pourang, Nima; Abedini, Ali; Abdullah, Omar; Gharbia, Salem S.; Pilla, Francesco; Chefetz, Benny; Topaz, Tom; Yao, Koffi Marcellin; Aubakirova, Bakhyt; Beisenova, Raikhan; Olaka, Lydia; Mulu, Jemimah K.; Chatanga, Peter; Ntuli, Victor; Blama, Nathaniel T.; Sherif, Sheck; Aris, Ahmad Zaharin; Looi, Ley Juen; Niang, Mahamoudane; Traore, Seydou T.; Oldenkamp, Rik; Ogunbanwo, Olatayo; Ashfaq, Muhammad; Iqbal, Muhammad; Abdeen, Ziad; O'Dea, Aaron; Morales-Saldana, Jorge Manuel; de la Cruz, Heidi; Navarrete, Ian; Carvalho, Fabio; Gogra, Alhaji Brima; Koroma, Bashiru M.; Cerkvenik-Flajs, Vesna; Gombac, Mitja; Thwala, Melusi; Choi, Kyungho; Kang, Habyeong; Ladu, John L. Celestino; Rico, Andreu; Amerasinghe, Priyanie; Sobek, Anna; Horlitz, Gisela; Zenker, Armin K.; King, Alex C.; Jiang, Jheng-Jie; Kariuki, Rebecca; Tumbo, Madaka; Tezel, Ulas; Onay, Turgut T.; Lejju, Julius B.; Vystavna, Yuliya; Vergeles, Yuriy; Heinzen, Horacio; Perez-Parada, Andres; Sims, Douglas B.; Figy, Maritza; Good, David; Teta, Charles (2022) Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119 (8). ISSN 0027-8424

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Abstract

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	pharmaceuticals; aquatic contamination; antimicrobials; global pollution; wastewater
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES NATURAL SCIENCES > Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences NATURAL SCIENCES > Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences > Environmental Science
Divisions:	Division for Marine and Enviromental Research
Depositing User:	Martina Žugaj
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2026 07:50
URI:	https://fulir.irb.hr:/id/eprint/11798
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.2113947119

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