Environment Department, University of York, York, UK.
Biol Lett. 2013 Jun 26;9(4):20130492. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0492. Print 2013 Aug 23.
The use of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals is increasing. Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of research into potential environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment. A Royal Society-supported seminar brought together experts from diverse scientific fields to discuss the risks posed by pharmaceuticals to wildlife. Recent analytical advances have revealed that pharmaceuticals are entering habitats via water, sewage, manure and animal carcases, and dispersing through food chains. Pharmaceuticals are designed to alter physiology at low doses and so can be particularly potent contaminants. The near extinction of Asian vultures following exposure to diclofenac is the key example where exposure to a pharmaceutical caused a population-level impact on non-target wildlife. However, more subtle changes to behaviour and physiology are rarely studied and poorly understood. Grand challenges for the future include developing more realistic exposure assessments for wildlife, assessing the impacts of mixtures of pharmaceuticals in combination with other environmental stressors and estimating the risks from pharmaceutical manufacturing and usage in developing countries. We concluded that an integration of diverse approaches is required to predict 'unexpected' risks; specifically, ecologically relevant, often long-term and non-lethal, consequences of pharmaceuticals in the environment for wildlife and ecosystems.
人类和兽医药品的使用正在增加。在过去的十年中，人们对药品在环境中的潜在环境影响进行了大量研究。皇家学会支持的一次研讨会汇集了来自不同科学领域的专家，讨论了药品对野生动物构成的风险。最近的分析进展表明，药品通过水、污水、粪便和动物尸体进入栖息地，并通过食物链传播。药品的设计目的是在低剂量下改变生理机能，因此它们可能是特别有效的污染物。亚洲秃鹫因接触双氯芬酸而几乎灭绝，这是一个关键的例子，即接触一种药品会对非目标野生动物产生种群水平的影响。然而，对行为和生理的更微妙变化的研究很少，人们也不太了解。未来的重大挑战包括开发更现实的野生动物暴露评估，评估与其他环境胁迫因素结合的多种药品的影响，并估计发展中国家药品制造和使用带来的风险。我们的结论是，需要采用多种方法来预测“意外”风险；具体来说，需要预测环境中药品对野生动物和生态系统的生态相关的、通常是长期的和非致命的影响。
