Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Variation in the numbers of pectoral fin spines and rays, pelvic fin rays, gill rakers on the first gill arch, anal fin rays, and the number of vertebrae of Silurus triostegus Heckel were examined in specimens from 16 localities that span its entire distribution range in the Tigris, Euphrates, and Shatt al-Arab rivers in Iraq. The mean number of the six meristic traits increases toward high latitudes with maximum and minimum values in the north and south of Iraq. Based on cluster analysis and PCA, the Mesopotamian river samples were clearly separated into three distinct groups. The upper Tigris populations were isolated from those of the middle and southern populations of this river and from those of
The research deals with the problem of visual pollution, as it is one of the most important urban problems that cities suffer from. The concept of visual pollution has recently emerged to describe the deformation and degradation of the urban environment. Visual pollution is defined as any component of the surrounding environment that is inconsistent and not homogeneous with its natural and human components. The volume of visual pollution has doubled due to the non-compliance with the laws, regulations and controls set by the Municipality of Baghdad by the citizens, and to the weak municipal role that the municipality plays in implementing these laws. Therefore, it has become necessary to know the manifestations of visual pollution and th
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the concept of green taxes and their role in reducing environmental pollution through the poll of Abnh of taxpayers and employees of the General Authority for taxes totaling 200 individual .autam adoption of the resolution as a tool head for the collection of data and information from the sample and analyzed their responses using a statistical program (spss - 10), and calculating the percentages and the arithmetic mean, standard deviation and research found to a number of conclusions, notably the lack of legislation with the challenges and the difficulty of the existence of a measure or a standard lack of planning for the application of environmental taxes that the state taxation application between the Gene
... Show MoreThe economic dimensions of environmental issues are complex and unclear in many cases, there is a kind of confusion in the real relationship between economic growth and environmental regulations. Many of the negative environmental impacts are accompanied by human activities and urban and industrial development in the city, and that many of the projects that did not take into account the environmental factors during the planning and implementation of them can be detrimental, as well as natural environments, archeological sites, historical or scientific value, aesthetic or educational. It also describes the Global Environment Outlook that if current trends continue, population growth, economic growth and consumption patterns, the p
... Show MoreThe present study deals with the relationship of noise pollution to the mental health of university students, through the researcher field study with the use of descriptive Correlative approach to investigate this relationship. Noise is one of the elements of environmental pollution that people often expose to in their environment. The problem of noise has been exacerbated now because of cultural and technological progress in crowded cities. As a result, the researchers studied noise as an environmental stimulus that affects the mental health of the human being.The researchers, through their current research try to study a very serious problem, which is the problem of noise pollution on the health side of university students as a
... Show MoreThis study was conducted to evaluate the hydrocarbon biodegradation abilities of Enterobacter cloacae, Staphylococcus aureus, Sphingomonas paucimobilis, and Pentoae species which were isolated from different diesel-contaminated soil samples. The isolates were identified by the Vitek 2 system. Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FT-IR) tested the potential of these isolates to biodegrade the diesel according to the peak areas, a significant decrease in the area of the peaks at 2856-2928 cm−1 corresponds to aliphatic hydrocarbons. The appearance of small peaks at 900-1032 cm−1 refers to substituted benzene derivative compounds. An appearance of some new peaks at 3010- 3030 cm−1 which indicate the presence of alcohol (-OH) and ketones (RC=O)
... Show MoreUnderground water is extracted by wells that are connected through underground canals. Thus, the levels of pollutant elements in ground water could be evaluated directly from water samples collected from the wells. This study was conducted in the city of Samara / Salah-Aldeen province – Iraq. The samples were taken from 29
wells within the study area for the period 2012-2014 with a supervision from the General Authority for Groundwater / the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources. GIS technology was adopted to calculate the pollution elements at Samara water table. The concentrations of chemical elements [K, Na, Mg, Cl, Ca] and compounds [SO4, HCO3] were manipulated and calculated for the entire area. The results of laboratory analy
Water pollution is an issue that can be exacerbated by drought as increased concentrations of unwanted substances are a consequence of lower water levels. Polluted water that flows into natural marshlands leads to the deposition of pollutants in the interior of the marsh. Here we present evidence that the interior of the Central Marsh (CM) in southern Iraq suffers from higher levels of pollution than areas closer to the source of water entering the marsh (the Euphrates River). A 1.7m embankment that halts the flow of the Euphrates is only infrequently breached and so the CM is effectively the terminal destination of the waters (and their associated pollutants and agricultural waste) flowing from the West of Iraq.
A range of water
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