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- Carlsson, Gunnar, et al.
(author)
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Effluent from Bulk Drug Production is Toxic to Aquatic Vertebrates.
- 2009
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In: Environmental toxicology and chemistry. - : Wiley. - 0730-7268 .- 1552-8618. ; 28:12, s. 2656-2662
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Very high levels of a range of pharmaceuticals have recently been reported in the effluent from a wastewater treatment plant near Hyderabad, India. The plant serves approximately 90 manufacturers of bulk drugs that primarily are exported to the world market. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics were found at levels that are highly toxic to various microorganisms. Despite that mg/L levels of drugs targeting human proteins have also been found, it is difficult to conclude whether these levels are sufficiently high to adversely affect fish or amphibians due to the lack of relevant chronic toxicity data for most human pharmaceuticals. To assess potential effects on aquatic vertebrates, tadpoles of Xenopus tropicalis were exposed to three dilutions of effluent (0.2, 0.6 and 2%) over 14 days, starting at developmental stage 51. Additionally, newly fertilized zebrafish (Danio rerio) were exposed to diluted effluent in 96-well plates for up to 144 hours post-fertilization (hpf). The tadpoles' body lengths, weights and developmental stages were recorded, whereas a larger number of sub-lethal and lethal endpoints were studied in the zebrafish. A 40% reduced growth of the exposed tadpoles was demonstrated at the lowest tested effluent concentration (0.2%), indicating that there are potent constituents in the effluent that can adversely affect aquatic vertebrates. The LC50 for zebrafish at 144 hpf was between 3.1 and 7.9% in different experiments. Reduced spontaneous movements, pigmentation and heart rate were recorded within 48 hpf at 8 and 16% effluent concentrations. Treated effluent from a plant, which serves as an important link in the global supply chain for bulk drugs, is thus shown to cause adverse effects to aquatic vertebrates even at very high dilutions.
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