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Selected widely prescribed pharmaceuticals: toxicity of the drugs and the products of their photochemical degradation to aquatic organisms
Summary
Researchers reviewed the environmental fate of widely prescribed pharmaceuticals in surface waters, examining both the parent drugs and their photochemical degradation products. The study found that some breakdown products may be more toxic to aquatic organisms than the original drugs, highlighting how pharmaceutical pollution interacts with other contaminants including microplastics in water systems.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs, antidiabetics, antiarrhythmics, antidepressants, and antibiotics belong to the most prescribed drugs worldwide. Because of the manufacture, excretion, and improper disposal of leftover drugs, the drugs enter waste waters and, subsequently, surface waters. They have been detected in surface waters all over the world, from concentrations of ng/l to concentrations several orders of magnitude higher. Since pharmaceuticals are designed to be both biologically and chemically stable, photochemical degradation by sun radiation represents a way of transformation in the natural environment. This review provides a survey of how selected drugs of the above-mentioned classes affect aquatic organisms of different trophic level. The emphasis is on the harmful effects of phototransformation products, an area of scientific investigation that has only attracted attention in the past few years, revealing the surprising fact that products of photochemical degradation might be even more toxic to aquatic organisms than the parent drugs.
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