Environmental Planning Institute and Department of Environmental Planning, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Sci Total Environ. 2017 Aug 15;592:600-607. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.044. Epub 2017 Mar 17.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the significance of metabolites to the ERA of human pharmaceuticals. The predicted exposure concentrations (PECs) in surface water were estimated for a total of 24 selected active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their metabolites using a life cycle based emission estimation model combined with a multimedia fate model with Monte-Carlo calculations. With the eco-toxicity data, the hazard quotients (HQs) of the metabolites were compared with those of individual parents alone. The results showed that PEC or toxicity or both of the metabolites was predicted to be higher than that of their parent APIs, which resulted in a total of 18 metabolites (from 12 parents) that have greater HQs than their parents. This result clearly demonstrated that some metabolites may potentially pose greater risk than their parent APIs in the water environment. Therefore, significance of metabolites should be carefully evaluated for monitoring strategy, priority setting, and scoping of the environmental risk assessment of APIs. The method used in the present work may serve as a pragmatic approach for the purpose of preliminary screening or priority setting of environmental risk posed by both APIs and their metabolites.
本研究旨在展示代谢物对人用药物的 ERA 的重要性。使用基于生命周期的排放估算模型与结合蒙特卡罗计算的多介质命运模型，对总共 24 种选定的活性药物成分 (API) 及其代谢物进行了预测暴露浓度 (PEC) 的估算。利用生态毒性数据，将代谢物的危害系数 (HQ) 与其单独的母体 API 进行了比较。结果表明，预测代谢物的 PEC 或毒性或两者均高于母体 API，这导致共有 18 种代谢物（来自 12 种母体 API）的 HQ 大于其母体 API。这一结果清楚地表明，一些代谢物在水环境中可能比其母体 API 具有更大的潜在风险。因此，对于 API 的环境风险评估的监测策略、优先级设置和范围界定，应仔细评估代谢物的重要性。本工作中使用的方法可作为初步筛选或确定 API 及其代谢物所带来的环境风险的优先级的实用方法。
