Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom.
Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Nov 1;793:148617. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148617. Epub 2021 Jun 23.
A comprehensive aquatic environmental risk assessment (ERA) of the human pharmaceutical propranolol was conducted, based on all available scientific literature. Over 200 papers provided information on environmental concentrations (77 of which provided river concentrations) and 98 dealt with potential environmental effects. The median concentration of propranolol in rivers was 7.1 ng/L (range of median values of individual studies 0.07 to 89 ng/L), and the highest individual value was 590 ng/L. Sixty-eight EC50 values for 35 species were available. The lowest EC50 value was 0.084 mg/L. A species sensitivity distribution (SSD) provided an HC50 value of 6.64 mg/L and an HC5 value of 0.22 mg/L. Thus, there was a difference of nearly 6 orders of magnitude between the median river concentration and the HC50 value, and over 4 orders of magnitude between the median river concentration and the HC5 value. Even if an assessment factor of 100 was applied to the HC5 value, to provide considerable protection to all species, the safety margin is over 100-fold. However, nearly half of all papers reporting effects of propranolol did not provide an EC50 value. Some reported that very low concentrations of propranolol caused effects. The lowest concentration reported to cause an effect - in fact, a range of biochemical and physiological effects on mussels - was 0.3 ng/L. In none of these 'low concentration' papers was a sigmoidal concentration-response relationship obtained. Although inclusion of data from these papers in the ERA cause a change in the conclusion reached, we are sceptical of the repeatability of these 'low concentration' results. We conclude that concentrations of propranolol present currently in rivers throughout the world do not constitute a risk to aquatic organisms. We discuss the need to improve the quality of ecotoxicology research so that more robust ERAs acceptable to all stakeholders can be completed.
对人类药物普萘洛尔进行了全面的水生环境风险评估 (ERA)，依据的是所有现有科学文献。超过 200 篇论文提供了环境浓度信息（其中 77 篇提供了河流浓度），98 篇涉及潜在的环境影响。河流中普萘洛尔的中位数浓度为 7.1ng/L（个别研究中位数值范围为 0.07 至 89ng/L），最高个体值为 590ng/L。有 68 个 35 种物种的 EC50 值。最低 EC50 值为 0.084mg/L。物种敏感性分布 (SSD) 提供了 HC50 值为 6.64mg/L 和 HC5 值为 0.22mg/L。因此，河流浓度中位数与 HC50 值之间存在近 6 个数量级的差异，与 HC5 值之间存在 4 个数量级以上的差异。即使对 HC5 值应用 100 的评估因子，为所有物种提供相当大的保护，安全裕度仍超过 100 倍。然而，近一半报告普萘洛尔影响的论文没有提供 EC50 值。有些报道称，非常低浓度的普萘洛尔就会产生影响。报道的引起影响的最低浓度-实际上是贻贝的一系列生化和生理影响-为 0.3ng/L。在这些“低浓度”论文中，没有获得浓度-反应关系的 sigmoidal 曲线。尽管将这些论文的数据纳入 ERA 会改变得出的结论，但我们对这些“低浓度”结果的可重复性持怀疑态度。我们的结论是，目前在世界范围内河流中存在的普萘洛尔浓度不会对水生生物构成风险。我们讨论了需要提高生态毒理学研究的质量，以便能够完成所有利益相关者都能接受的更稳健的 ERA。
