SOLUTIONS for present and future emerging pollutants in land and water resources management

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

2013-2018

Central Europe Danubian Countries Iberian Peninsula Mediterranean countries Rhine River Region Southeastern Europe Southern Europe Western Europe

1) To produce consistent solutions for the large number of legacy, present and future emerging chemicals posing a risk to European water bodies with respect to ecosystems and human health.

2) A specific focus of the project is on user-friendly products to be delivered for chemical and water resources management.

Environmental experts, Public institutions, and Scientists

Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment, Risks to ecosystems, and Risks to human health

Objective 1:
– delivers efficient tools for the identification of risk substances and mixtures by developing a new generation of monitoring approaches and bio- & chemo-analytical tools.
– provides enhanced comprehension on chemical exposure and effect by compiling a full chain of integrated models and databases.
– demonstrates the added value of the new generation of tools in trans-European case studies (Danube, Rhine, and rivers of the Iberian peninsula) with links to existing monitoring programs such as the Joint Danube Survey.
– elaborates a coherent conceptual framework for the assessment, prioritization and abatement of pollutants and mixtures thereof to protect European waters and to minimize ecological and human health risks.

Objective 2:
– evaluates potential opportunities and obstacles for cooperation between the WFD and other existing policies, as for example the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).
– assesses abatement options and control measures for emerging pollutants in waste and drinking water treatment for an effective risk reduction.
– delivers a common knowledge base on a wide range of toxicants, an evidence-based compilation of chemical substances with emissions that might require regulation, and comprehensive lists of River Basin Specific Pollutants -RBSPs- for the Danube.
– identifies upcoming risks posed by future emerging pollutants on the basis of scenarios on economic development, technology, demography, climate change and others.
– synthesizes the new approaches and condenses them into user-friendly guidelines, computer tools and recommendations for the direct support of the implementation of the WFD.

• SOLUTIONS
• Study of pharmaceuticals in surface and wastewater from Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico: Occurrence and environmental risk assessment
• Medicines, shaken and stirred: a critical review on the ecotoxicology of pharmaceutical mixtures.
• Environmental Risk Assessment of Pharmaceutical Mixtures: Demands, Gaps, and Possible Bridges.
• Towards spatially smart abatement of human pharmaceuticals in surface waters: Defining impact of sewage treatment plants on susceptible functions
• Occurrence of pharmaceutical, recreational and psychotropic drug residues in surface water on the northern Antarctic Peninsula region.
• Model-predicted occurrence of multiple pharmaceuticals in Swedish surface waters and their flushing to the Baltic Sea
• Evaluation of human pharmaceutical emissions and concentrations in Swedish river basins
• Pharmaceuticals and iodinated contrast media in a hospital wastewater: A case study to analyse their presence and characterise their environmental risk and hazard
• Antimicrobial activity of pharmaceutical cocktails in sewage treatment plant effluent – An experimental and predictive approach to mixture risk assessment.
• Behavioral profile alterations in zebrafish larvae exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of eight priority pharmaceuticals.
• Deliverable D 6.1. Pollution of tomorrow: Options to act on Future Risks. Recommendations for a successful management of emerging pollutants. Final report of Work Package (WP) 6