Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: Agents of Subtle Change?

The influence of the organochlorine insecticide lindane (-C6H6Cl6) upon the disruption of the precopulatory guarding behaviour of the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca.

The Acute Toxicity of Lindane to Hyalella azteca and the Development of a Sublethal Bioassay Based on Precopulatory Guarding Behavior

Toxicity and Bioconcentration of BHC and Lindane in Selected Estuarine Animals.

Risks to the Environment from Chemical Substances (Ecotoxicology)

Buffalo Pond lake

Remediation

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: Agents of Subtle Change?

Christian G. Daughton¹ and Thomas A. Ternes²

¹Environmental Sciences Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ORD/NERL, Las Vegas, Nevada USA; ²ESWE-Institute for Water Research and Water Technology, Wiesbaden-Schierstein, Germany

Abstract
During the last three decades, the impact of chemical pollution has focused almost exclusively on the conventional "priority" pollutants, especially those acutely toxic/carcinogenic pesticides and industrial intermediates displaying persistence in the environment. This spectrum of chemicals, however, is only one piece of the larger puzzle in "holistic" risk assessment. Another diverse group of bioactive chemicals receiving comparatively little attention as potential environmental pollutants includes the pharmaceuticals and active ingredients in personal care products (in this review collectively termed PPCPs), both human and veterinary, including not just prescription drugs and biologics, but also diagnostic agents, "nutraceuticals," fragrances, sun-screen agents, and numerous others. These compounds and their bioactive metabolites can be continually introduced to the aquatic environment as complex mixtures via a number of routes but primarily by both untreated and treated sewage. Aquatic pollution is particularly troublesome because aquatic organisms are captive to continual life-cycle, multigenerational exposure. The possibility for continual but undetectable or unnoticed effects on aquatic organisms is particularly worrisome because effects could accumulate so slowly that major change goes undetected until the cumulative level of these effects finally cascades to irreversible change--change that would otherwise be attributed to natural adaptation or ecologic succession. As opposed to the conventional, persistent priority pollutants, PPCPs need not be persistent if they are continually introduced to surface waters, even at low parts-per-trillion/parts-per-billion concentrations (ng-µg/L). Even though some PPCPs are extremely persistent and introduced to the environment in very high quantities and perhaps have already gained ubiquity worldwide, others could act as if they were persistent, simply because their continual infusion into the aquatic environment serves to sustain perpetual life-cycle exposures for aquatic organisms. This review attempts to synthesize the literature on environmental origin, distribution/occurrence, and effects and to catalyze a more focused discussion in the environmental science community. Key words: aquatic, drugs, ecologic health, ecologic risk assessment, emerging risk, pharmaceuticals, pollution, sewage. -- Environ Health Perspect 107(suppl 6):907-938 (1999).

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/suppl-6/907-938daughton/abstract.html

The influence of the organochlorine insecticide lindane (-C6H6Cl6) upon the disruption of the precopulatory guarding behaviour of the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca.

M J Beach and D Pascoe
School of Pure and Applied Biology, University of Wales, Cardiff, P.O. Box 915, Cardiff, CF1 3TL, UK
The freshwater coelenterate Hydra vulgaris is an important component of freshwater ecosystems and this study aimed to establish its value as an indicator of pollutants entering freshwater. The toxicity of the heavy metals copper, cadmium and zinc, was assessed using both acute and chronic responses. Techniques involving the identification and large scale culture of Hydra were also examined. The acute toxicity of copper, cadmium and zinc was measured by determining 24, 48, 72 and 96 hour LC50 values and the chronic sub-lethal effects assessed using a feeding test. The feeding test examined toxic effects on the normal responses of Hydra to the presence of the prey provided, neonate Daphnia magna (Strauss). Results of this study demonstrated that Hydra vulgaris (Pallas) is a suitable species for evaluating the toxicity of freshwater pollutants, and can be used successfully to rank toxicants in order of potential hazard. It can be cultured easily in the laboratory to provide large numbers of test animals and can be used in simple, cost effective bioassays of both acute and chronic toxicity.

The Acute Toxicity of Lindane to Hyalella azteca and the Development of a Sublethal Bioassay Based on Precopulatory Guarding Behavior

Abstract

Acute and sublethal toxicity of the organochlorine insecticide lindane to the amphipod crustacean Hyalella azteca was investigated. Acute experiments were conducted for a maximum test exposure period of 240 h with adult and neonate H. azteca. Median lethal concentrations (LC50s) determined for adult Hyalella included a 48-h LC50 of 47.6 µg/L and 240-h LC50 of 26.9 µg/L. For neonate H. azteca 24-, 48-, and 240-h LC50s were 29.5, 14.8, and 9.8 µg lindane/L, respectively. Neonate H. azteca were approximately three times more sensitive than adults. Two sublethal toxicity bioassays were developed based on the direct and indirect disruption of the precopulatory or mate guarding behavior of Hyalella. This reproductive behavior is readily quantifiable and of ecological significance as it is a vital component of the mating success of the species. The direct disruption bioassay examined the separation of precopulatory pairs maintained in control water and a range of lindane concentrations during a 24-h exposure period. Median separation times (ST50s) were determined and the LOEC was 24.4 µg lindane/L. The indirect disruption bioassay consisted of a test exposure period of just 4 h after which an invertebrate anesthetic solution was administered to induce separation of precopulatory pairs. The LOEC was 17.3 µg lindane/L, suggesting that the indirect precopulatory separation bioassay was comparable to the 24-h direct separation study. Both bioassays are rapid, relatively simple to perform, and have yielded effect concentrations that correspond with LC50 values determined using adult and neonate H. azteca life stages over more prolonged lindane exposures. Following some modification, these behavioral bioassays may be suitable for use in the hazard evaluation of sediments and for deployment as in situ toxicity tests.

Schimmel, Steven C., James M. Patrick, Jr. and Jerrold Forester. 1977. 

Toxicity and Bioconcentration of BHC and Lindane in Selected Estuarine Animals. 

EPA-600/J-77-070. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 6(2/3):355-363. (ERL,GB 288).

Flow-through, 96-hr bioassays were conducted to determine the acute toxicity of technical BHC and lindane to several estuarine animals. Test animals and their respective 96-hr lindane LC50 values were: mysid (Mysidopsis bahia), 6.3 µg/L; pink shrimp (Penaeus duorarum), 0.17 µg/L; grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio), 4.4 µg/L; sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus), 104 µg/L; and pinfish ( Lagodon rhomboides), 30.6 µg/L. The 96-hr LC50 values for pink shrimp and pinfish exposed to BHC were 0.34 and 86.4 µg/L, respectively. Two BHC bioconcentration studies were conducted with the oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and pinfish. After 28 days exposure, oysters bioconcentrated an average of 218 X the BHC measured in exposure water, while pinfish bioconcentrated 130 X in their edible tissues and 617 X in offal. After one week in BHC-free sea water, no detectable residues were measured in oysters or pinfish.

http://www.epa.gov/ged/publica/keycb0.htm  

Technical Report No. 40
RELATIVE TOXICITIES OF SELECTED CHEMICALS TO SEVERAL SPECIES OF TROPICAL FISH
by: Jerry H. Nunogawa, Nathan C. Burbank, Jr., Reginald H. F. Young, L. Stephen Lau

August 1970

ABSTRACT

This study determined the 24, 48, 96-hour median tolerance limit of phenol, DDT., dieldrin, and lindane of five species of fish commonly found in streams and estuaries in semi-tropical areas. They are: (i)Gambusia affinis - mosquito fish., (ii) Lebistes reticulatus- guppies, Tilapia mossambica - tilapia., (iv) Kuhlia sandvicensis - aholehole, and (v)Stolephorus purpureus - nehu. Of the five species, Gambusia affinis had the highest tolerance to the toxic agents used in this study. Lebistes reticulatus and Tilapia mossambica had approximately the same sensitivity to DDT as well as dieldrin and lindane. Lebistes reticulatus had a higher sensitivity to phenol than Tilapia mossambica. Although Stolephorus purpureus, nehu, was highly sensitive, Kuhlia sandvicensis was most sensitive to all toxic agents used.

http://www.hawaii.edu/wrrc/abs1-68.html

Environmental Chemicals

Risks to the Environment from Chemical Substances (Ecotoxicology)

Testing with lindane and collembola:

Biochemical and physiological laboratory toxicity tests will be developed, applying cellular and subcellular in vitro procedures, and whole organism procedures. The test organisms used will include groups representative of different trophic levels and occurring in pelagic and benthic environments (e.g. gammarids, rotifers, cladocerans, copepods, algae and fishes). The tests will be developed and evaluated applying reference chemicals selected from those (copper, lindane, atrazine, 3,4-dichloroaniline) employed in previous projects in the Environment Research Programmes, which will allow direct comparison of test sensitivities. Further chemicals will be used when appropriate (e.g. 2,4-dinitrophenole, rotenone, malathione, cabaryle, etc.).

The test organisms will represent the following taxa: Nematoda (threadworms), Enchytreidae (enchytreids), Lumbricidae (earthworms), Collembola, Oribatida (mites), Gamasida (mites) and Staphylinidae (rove beatles). For characterising the representativeness of the test species, their sensitivity, the exposure routes, their mobility, life stage, life strategy, life form and the habitat will be taken into account.

Buffalo Pond lake

http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/nam/nam-57.html