17 - Pharmaceuticals as pollutants Flashcards
Commonly used method of detecting pharmaceutical pollution
Difficult, but usually use a combination of:
- liquid chromatography
- mass spectroscopy
- mass spectroscopy
LC/MS/MS
Four commonly detected pharmaceuticals
- Estradiol
- SSRIs (antidepressants/ antianxiety)
- Antibiotics
- Atenolol (beta blocker)
Slides 8,9
Effluent analysis from municipalities
What are endocrine disruptors
Toxicants that interfere with the endocrine system, usually either synthetic hormones, or hormone-mimics
Endocrine disruptors exert their effects in three ways:
- Mimicking or antagonizing the effects of hormones
- Altering the synthesis and the metabolism of hormones
- Modifying hormone receptor levels
Common endocrine mimics
- PCBs
- DDT
- Bisphenol- A and S
What glands/organs are part of the endocrine system
Pineal, pituitary, thyroid glands
Thymus
Kidney, pancreas
Ovary, testis
Slide 13
How a hormone mimic acts
How do endocrine disruptors pose threats to humans?
May not pose direct acute or chronic threats, but they indirectly interact with the endocrine systems that control the body’s function resulting in excessive amounts or suppression of hormones
Name some symptoms of endocrine disruption
- infertility
- sexual underdevelopment
- attention deficit or hyperactivity
- birth defects
How can antibiotics be removed from water? What is the problem with this?
Usually effectively removed by chlorination
Problem: all treated water isn’t chlorinated. Chloramine is replacing chlorine use bc fewer byproducts, but is less effective at degrading antibiotics
Most antibiotics are used where? Problem?
80% of antibiotics sold in USA are used on farm animals
Problem: farm waste isn’t treated like human waste
Slides 16-18
look
Affect of SSRIs (antidepressants) on wildlife
- Reduced predator-avoidance behaviour in fathead minnows
- minnows also swam faster
Slides 21, 22
What is synthetic estrogen and what is it used in?
Ethinyl estradiol found in birth control pills
Component of nearly every hormonal contraceptive in NA
Where is ethinyl estradiol being found?
Downstream from wastewater treatment discharges
More persistent than other forms of estrogen
What is ethinyl estradiol doing to aquatic organisms?
- Acutely toxic to aquatic orgs at a the scale of mg/L
- Can induce vitellogenin (egg yolk protein) production in male fish at the scale of ng/L
Slides 25-36
Estradiol affect on aquatic orgs
How many illnesses and deaths are caused by antibiotic resistwance
over 2 million illnesses
23,000 deaths
Slide 38
Antibiotic resistance
Impacts of pharmaceutical pollution on humans
- harmful effects to humans is not observed
- EXCEPT from antibiotics: concerns for antibiotic resistance is high
- but may be impacted in the future, don’t ignore the problem!
What wastewater treatment steps help remove pharmaceuticals?
- Secondary treatment can remove 20-90% of pharmaceutical from waste
- Additional ‘quaternary’ treatment can remove up to 99% of pharmaceuticals
Methods of quaternary treatment for pharmaceutical removal
- Ozonation
- Advanced oxidation
- Activated carbon
- Reverse osmosis
- Nanofiltration
Slides 42-47**
Know it
Quaternary treatment
Problem with quaternary treatment
Cost:
- most municipalities in Canada can barely afford tertiary treatment
- may not remove it all
Ways to reduce pharmaceutical usage
- Deprescribing
- Reduce non-therapeutic usage in farm animals
- Dispose excess drugs properly
- Public awareness
What is deprescribing? How?
Reducing or stopping medications that may not be beneficial or may be causing harm
- make over-the-counter drugs one of many options
- start slow, and work up
- talk to doctor
- consider non-hormonal birth control
What is Atrazine? What affect did it have on male African clawed frogs?
Herbicide
Males become demasculinized (chemically castrated) and completely feminized. Could make viable offspring with other male
Decreased number of males, changing male-female ratio in pop
