ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2013
Pharmaceuticals in tap water: human health risk assessment and proposed monitoring framework in China.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Incorporating a Screening-Level Risk Quotient (RQ_screen) for Assessing Human Health Risk of Pharmaceutical Residues in Consumption Water.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Pooled it
- The missing thread of One Health efforts: improper drug disposal as an overlooked driver of antimicrobial resistance.mSphere · 2026Review
- Simultaneous analysis of multi-class antibiotics in bottled water using large-volume direct-injection LC-MS/MS.RSC advances · 2025Article
- Veterinary Drug Residues in the Food Chain as an Emerging Public Health Threat: Sources, Analytical Methods, Health Impacts, and Preventive Measures.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Pharmaceutical Residues in Edible Oysters along the Coasts of the East and South China Seas and Associated Health Risks to Humans and Wildlife.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- The Dunning-Kruger effect: subjective health perceptions on smoking behavior among older Chinese adults.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Human health risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in the European Vecht River.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Article
- Pharmaceuticals in drinking water sources and tap water in a city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River: occurrence, spatiotemporal distribution, and risk assessment.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Metronidazole enhances steatosis-related early-stage hepatocarcinogenesis in high fat diet-fed rats through DNA double-strand breaks and modulation of autophagy.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Structural Adaptive, Self-Separating Material for Removing Ibuprofen from Waters and Sewage.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- TiONanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Fate of Benzophenone, Benzophenone-3 and Caffeine in Lab-Scale Direct River Water Treatment by Hybrid Processes.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Pharmaceutical compound removal efficiency by a small constructed wetland located in south Brazil.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- Environmental knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes regarding caffeine consumption among Chinese university students from the perspective of ecopharmacovigilance.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- Occurrence of multiclass endocrine disrupting compounds in a drinking water supply system and associated risks.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Active pharmaceutical ingredients in Malaysian drinking water: consumption, exposure, and human health risk.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2020Article
- Challenges for Safe and Healthy Drinking Water in China.Current environmental health reports · 2020Review
- Antibiotics in Drinking Water and Health Risks - China, 2017.China CDC weekly · 2020Article
- Thermal baths as sources of pharmaceutical and illicit drug contamination.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Article
- Method Development for Assessing Carbamazepine, Caffeine, and Atrazine in Water Sources from the Brazilian Federal District Using UPLC-QTOF/MS.International journal of analytical chemistry · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPharmaceuticals are known to contaminate tap water worldwide, but the relevant human health risks have not been assessed in China.
objectivesWe monitored 32 pharmaceuticals in Chinese tap water and evaluated the life-long human health risks of exposure in order to provide information for future prioritization and risk management.
methodsWe analyzed samples (n = 113) from 13 cities and compared detected concentrations with existing or newly-derived safety levels for assessing risk quotients (RQs) at different life stages, excluding the prenatal stage.
resultsWe detected 17 pharmaceuticals in 89% of samples, with most detectable concentrations (92%) at < 50 ng/L. Caffeine (median-maximum, nanograms per liter: 24.4-564), metronidazole (1.8-19.3), salicylic acid (16.6-41.2), clofibric acid (1.2-3.3), carbamazepine (1.3-6.7), and dimetridazole (6.9-14.7) were found in ≥ 20% of samples. Cities within the Yangtze River region and Guangzhou were regarded as contamination hot spots because of elevated levels and frequent positive detections. Of the 17 pharmaceuticals detected, 13 showed very low risk levels, but 4 (i.e., dimetridazole, thiamphenicol, sulfamethazine, and clarithromycin) were found to have at least one life-stage RQ ≥ 0.01, especially for the infant and child life stages, and should be considered of high priority for management. We propose an indicator-based monitoring framework for providing information for source identification, water treatment effectiveness, and water safety management in China.
conclusionChinese tap water is an additional route of human exposure to pharmaceuticals, particularly for dimetridazole, although the risk to human health is low based on current toxicity data. Pharmaceutical detection and application of the proposed monitoring framework can be used for water source protection and risk management in China and elsewhere.
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