Occurrence and risk assessment of antidepressants in Huangpu River of Shanghai, China

Abstract

Antidepressants are gaining public attention because of increasing reports of their occurrence in environment and their potential impact on ecosystems and human health. Continuous input of pharmaceuticals into rivers, through psychiatric hospital or wastewater treatment plant (WWTPs) effluent, may cause adverse effects on the aquatic ecosystems of the receiving water bodies. This work investigates the occurrence and sources of 8 antidepressants in main stream and tributaries of Huangpu River in Shanghai. The detected concentrations of the selected antidepressants ranged from low nanogram per liter to 42.9 ng L⁻¹ (fluoxetine) in main stream and ranged from low nanogram per liter to 33.7 ng L⁻¹ (fluoxetine) in tributaries. To study the effect of hospital or wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on environment, the upstream and downstream samples were analyzed. Generally, antidepressants had greater concentrations in downstream than that in upstream of the WWTPs or hospitals. It is suggesting that WWTPs and hospitals may introduce pollution into water environment. A preliminary risk assessment was conducted: none of the eight target compounds yielded risk quotient (RQ) values more than 0.1, thus indicating that no adverse effect is expected in water environment. These results will provide background data for future antidepressants pollution control and management in Shanghai, China.

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