Environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals (ERAPharm)
The widespread detection of a large variety of pharmaceuticals in the environment has raised concerns about the potential impact of these bioactive substances on the environment. Although research on the fate and effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment has become an important issue and progressed significantly, a number of uncertainties remained. Therefore, the overall aim of ERAPharm was to advance existing knowledge and methods for the environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals. ERAPharm’s specific objectives were
- to investigate previously unstudied major exposure routes of pharmaceuticals into the terrestrial and aquatic environment,
- to investigate factors and processes affecting the fate of pharmaceuticals in soils, sediments and surface water,
- to further develop testing and modelling approaches for evaluating the fate of pharmaceuticals
- to develop a scenario-based exposure assessment system for pharmaceuticals,
- to explore the use of bioassays for an initial hazard screening and mode-of-action classification,
- to evaluate how information on pharmacodynamics and toxicodynamics in mammals can be used to guide the evaluation of potential sublethal effects in fish,
- to modify and refine test methods to detect the effects of long-term, low-level exposure to pharmaceuticals,
- to investigate whether and to what extent environmentally relevant concentrations of pharmaceuticals cause effects in the environment,
- to develop pragmatic approaches for assessing transformation products,
- to provide recommendations on how to improve current European environmental risk assessment procedures for pharmaceuticals.
These objectives were addressed by a consortium consisting of 14 partners from seven European countries and Canada: ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH (the co-ordinating partner), AstraZeneca UK Ltd., Brunel University (UK), Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (Germany), Centre National du Machinisme Agricole du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forêts (France), the University of York (UK), the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung, Abwasserreinigung und Gewässerschutz (Switzerland), Geotechnisches Institut AG (Switzerland), Utrecht University (The Netherlands), Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (Spain), the National Environmental Research Institute/Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), Umweltbundesamt (Germany) and the Canadian Water Network.
Within the three years of the project, the impact of environmental variables on the fate of pharmaceuticals as well as the effects of pharmaceuticals were investigated using methods ranging from low-complexity assays to higher-tier studies and modelling approaches. A considerable amount of the experimental work focussed on three case study compounds: the veterinary parasiticide ivermectin and two human pharmaceuticals, the ß-blocker atenolol and the anti-depressant fluoxetine. Further human and veterinary pharmaceuticals were investigated in the individual work packages. Based on project results, recommendations on how to improve current European environmental risk assessment procedures for human and veterinary pharmaceuticals were developed.
Within ERAPharm, ECT investigated the effects of pharmaceuticals on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates in laboratory, semi-field and field tests with a main focus on the veterinary parasiticide ivermectin. ECT contributed to the environmental risk assessments for ivermectin, atenolol and fluoxetine. Besides the coordination of the project, ECT led the work package investigating the effects of pharmaceuticals on terrestrial organisms.
The final activity report of the project can be downloaded here.
Last update: July 2024
