Environmental risk assessment of antibiotics in the Swedish environment with emphasis on sewage treatment plants.

The potential risks associated with antibiotics present in the Swedish environment were assessed using concentrations found in hospital effluent, and sewage treatment waters and sludge, in combination with data on their environmental effects obtained from the literature. For the aqueous environment, measured environmental concentrations and effect/no observed effect concentration ratios were much lower than one in most cases. The only exceptions, where concentrations of the investigated substances were high enough to pose potential risks, were the concentrations of the two fluoroquinolones, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, in the hospital effluent. Treating digested dewatered sludge by heat did not fully eliminate norfloxacin or ciprofloxacin, thus pellets may still contain high amounts of these substances (sub to low mgkg(-1)dw). In leaching tests less than 1% of the amounts of these fluoroquinolones in the sludge or pellets reached the aqueous phase, indicating that their mobility is limited if sludge is used to fertilize soil.

[1]  S. Dodson,et al.  Effects of pharmaceuticals on Daphnia survival, growth, and reproduction. , 2005, Chemosphere.

[2]  R. Brain,et al.  Effects of 25 pharmaceutical compounds to Lemna gibba using a seven‐day static‐renewal test , 2004, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[3]  S. Mabury,et al.  Microcosm evaluation of the effects of an eight pharmaceutical mixture to the aquatic macrophytes Lemna gibba and Myriophyllum sibiricum. , 2004, Aquatic toxicology.

[4]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Algal Toxicity of Antibacterial Agents Applied in Danish Fish Farming , 1999, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[5]  W. Giger,et al.  Determination of fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents in sewage sludge and sludge-treated soil using accelerated solvent extraction followed by solid-phase extraction. , 2002, Analytical chemistry.

[6]  B. Halling‐Sørensen,et al.  Algal toxicity of antibacterial agents used in intensive farming. , 2000, Chemosphere.

[7]  Mats Tysklind,et al.  Determination of antibiotic substances in hospital sewage water using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and group analogue internal standards. , 2004, Chemosphere.

[8]  Mats Tysklind,et al.  Screening of human antibiotic substances and determination of weekly mass flows in five sewage treatment plants in Sweden. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[9]  K. Miyamoto,et al.  Evaluation of antimicrobial agents for veterinary use in the ecotoxicity test using microalgae. , 2004, Chemosphere.

[10]  A. Pollio,et al.  Ecotoxicological impact of pharmaceuticals found in treated wastewaters: study of carbamazepine, clofibric acid, and diclofenac. , 2003, Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

[11]  Oliver A.H. Jones,et al.  Aquatic environmental assessment of the top 25 English prescription pharmaceuticals. , 2002, Water research.

[12]  W. Giger,et al.  Environmental exposure assessment of fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents from sewage to soil. , 2003, Environmental science & technology.

[13]  Chandra Venkataraman,et al.  A review on advantages of implementing luminescence inhibition test (Vibrio fischeri) for acute toxicity prediction of chemicals. , 2006, Environment international.

[14]  K Kümmerer,et al.  Significance of antibiotics in the environment. , 2003, The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy.

[15]  S. Thiele-Bruhn,et al.  Effects of sulfonamide and tetracycline antibiotics on soil microbial activity and microbial biomass. , 2005, Chemosphere.

[16]  Mats Tysklind,et al.  Behavior of fluoroquinolones and trimethoprim during mechanical, chemical, and active sludge treatment of sewage water and digestion of sludge. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[17]  Klaus Kümmerer,et al.  Assessment of degradation of 18 antibiotics in the Closed Bottle Test. , 2004, Chemosphere.

[18]  P. Krogh,et al.  Effects of the antibiotics oxytetracycline and tylosin on soil fauna. , 2000, Chemosphere.

[19]  Backhaus,et al.  The single substance and mixture toxicity of quinolones to the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri. , 2000, Aquatic toxicology.

[20]  Roberto Andreozzi,et al.  Antibiotics in the environment: occurrence in Italian STPs, fate, and preliminary assessment on algal toxicity of amoxicillin. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[21]  M. Čižman,et al.  The use and resistance to antibiotics in the community. , 2003, International journal of antimicrobial agents.

[22]  Pedro J J Alvarez,et al.  Amplification and attenuation of tetracycline resistance in soil bacteria: aquifer column experiments. , 2004, Water research.