WP8 Beyond Occurrence: Fate and Effects of Pharmaceutical and Other Emerging Wastewater Contaminants in Aquatic Systems
Wednesday, 16 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM in Exhibit Hall

(MIL-1117-837741) Environmental risk assessment of antimicrobial drugs.

Millais, A¹, Barrett, K¹, ¹ Huntingdon Life Sciences, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK

ABSTRACT- Antimicrobial drugs may enter the terrestrial environment as a result of veterinary use, and the spreading of manure from treated animals, or as a result of human use, and the spreading of contaminated sewage sludge to agricultural land. The degradation of antibiotics such as -lactams have been evaluated in a laboratory soil degrdation study. In this study it was found that the DT50 was was considerably shorter than expected, in the order of 1 day. The study methods which combined both specific methods of analysis together with a bioassay of microbial activity will be described, and the results presented. Using this experimentally derived infomation the soil Predicted Enviornmental Concentration (PEC)could be revised to reflect the expected pattern of degradation, and the risk assessment refined. The implications for the revised risk assessment will also be presented.

Key words: fate, antimicrobial, degradation, soil