On-farm Occurrence of Pharmaceuticals and Their Environmental Hazard: Case Study of a Tropical Dairy farm

Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2023 Sep 26;111(4):51. doi: 10.1007/s00128-023-03809-2.ABSTRACTAnimal husbandry wastewaters represent an important source of pharmaceuticals into the environment. This work aimed to evaluate the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and their hazard in wastewater from a model dairy farm from Costa Rica. Among the seven pharmaceuticals detected (acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, risperidone, sulfamethazine), caffeine, ibuprofen and acetaminophen showed the highest concentrations, while caffeine, carbamazepine and risperidone were the most frequently detected compounds. High (HQ ≥ 1) or medium (0.1 ≤ HQ < 1) hazard were estimated for three (caffeine, ibuprofen, risperidone) and two (acetaminophen, ketoprofen) pharmaceuticals, respectively; similarly, high overall hazard (∑HQ) and significant ecotoxicity were determined in samples from all sampling points. According to our results, the release of these aqueous matrices is a matter of environmental concern, as the treated wastewater is used for farm irrigation or directly released into nearby water streams. This work contributes to the knowledge on the scarcely described occurrence and risk of pharmaceuticals in Latin American regions.PMID:37752279 | DOI:10.1007/s00128-023-03809-2
Source: Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: research