Consumption and occurrence of pharmaceutical and personal care products in the aquatic environment in Spain

The occurrence of sixty pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), twenty metabolites and eight personal care products (PCPs) in the aquatic environment in Spain and their predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were calculated and compared with measured environmental concentrations (MECs) obtained from relevant published research. The occurrence in the aquatic environment was calculated through a mass balance approach considering the following: the number of pharmaceutical prescriptions issued, the amount of pharmaceutical discharged without consumption, consumption, self-medication, pharmacokinetics, treatment in wastewater facilities and discharged to aquatic environment. The estimation of consumption of active compounds of pharmaceuticals was conducted by at least one of the following methodologies: number of commercial packages sold, data for the number of defined daily dose per 1000 inhabitants per day (DHD), and pattern of treatment. Comparison of these methodologies for some compounds showed similar estimated consumption ranges. The highest pharmaceutical occurrence in the aquatic environment was for acetaminophen glucuronide, Galaxolide®, Iso-E-super®, acetaminophen, valsartan, amoxicillin, 2-hydroxy-ibuprofen, iopromide, omeprazole, carbamazepine 10, 11-epoxide, iopamidol, salicylic β-d-O-glucuronide acid, Tonalide®, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), clarithromycin and iohexol, with releases between 5 and 600 t y− 1. The relation of PEC/MEC was calculated for 58% of the compounds under study, and 64.7% of them had PEC/MEC ratios between 0.5 and 2. PEC values were mostly overestimated (57.4%). The predicted concentrations for pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) that had a high occurrence in the aquatic environment were very close to the measured concentrations. This research provides information that had not been calculated and analyzed previously, at least for Spain. Estimation of the PECs for pharmaceutical, personal care products and metabolites is a useful tool for identifying compounds that should be considered for environmental concern, and such estimations could be used to improve environmental risk assessment studies.

► Consumption of pharmaceutically active compounds was estimated.
► The occurrence in the environment of PPCPs and metabolites was estimated.
► Predicted and measured environmental concentrations were compared.
► PECs were close to MECs for 64.7% of compounds.
► PECs are a useful tool for prioritizing the study of PPCPs in the environment.