IP01 Ecotoxicity of Pharmaceuticals
B113 & B114
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Monday
(IP003) Prioritisation, modelling and monitoring of veterinary medicines in the environment.
Boxall, A1, Fogg, L1, Baird, D2, Pemberton, E3, Gravell, A4, Kolpin, D5, Boucard, T3, 1 University of York, York, UK2 Cranfield University, Derby, UK3 University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada4 Environment Agency, Wallingford, UK5 Environment Agency, Llanelli, UK
ABSTRACT- Veterinary medicines are used widely to treat disease and protect the health of animals. Whilst the environmental distribution and impacts of selected groups of veterinary medicines are well established, limited information is available in the public domain on the other substances. With more than 500 active ingredients currently in use, there is a need for pragmatic approaches that can be used to identify those substances and treatment scenarios that are of most concern and those agricultural systems that are at greatest risk. In this paper, we describe an approach developed to identify monitoring and research priorities for veterinary medicines in the UK environment. Initially information was obtained on the usage, properties, persistence and effects of veterinary medicines in use in the UK. Using this information, those substances likely to enter the environment in significant amounts and which have the potential to be harmful to aquatic and terrestrial organisms and human health were identified. These substances were then further assessed using exposure modelling approaches (which had previously been validated against the results of monitoring studies), in order to establish their relative risks to organisms in soil, water and sediment. Based on the results, a targeted environmental monitoring programme has been developed and this is currently being performed across a number of farms in England. Results of this monitoring work will be presented and compared to available ecotoxicological data.
Key words: prioritisation, veterinary medicines, monitoring, modelling