Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Recently, the aquatic environmental pollution by discharged pharmaceuticals has been reported. Pharmaceuticals are biologically active substances since they have been especially designed for having a specific pharmacological action. It was reported that a wide range of pharmaceuticals were detected at low concentrations (ng/L–ug/L) in aquatic environment. However, there are not so many reports about the environmental fate of these compounds and their possible interactions with aquatic organisms. Photodegradation of pharmaceuticals is one of important factor for predicting the fate of them in aquatic environment. In this study, we examined the photodegradation of nine pharmaceuticals (acetaminophen (AA), amiodarone (AM), dapsone (DP), dexamethazone (DX), indomethacine (IM), naproxen (NP), phenytoin (PH), raloxifene (RL) and sulindac (SL)) carrying out the ultraviolet (UV) irradiation experiments. Photodegradation of pharmaceuticals was measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Ecotoxicological effects of pharmaceuticals and UV exposed pharmaceuticals were evaluated by ISO11348 test with aquatic organisms, Photobacterium phosphoreum. As a result, photodegradation and photoproducts generation from pharmaceuticals by UV irradiaton were observed. Some pharmaceuticals showed toxicity in ISO11348 test, and the toxicity of pharmaceuticals was changed by UV irradiation. The results suggested that pharmaceuticals would change to the ecotoxicological products by UV irradiation in aquatic environment. Further examination is required to examine the fate and toxicities of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environment.
