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(54-01) Aquatic Exposure Assessment of Human Pharmaceuticals in European River Basins using GREAT-ER. Webb, S.*,1, Schowanek, D.1, 1 Procter & Gamble Eurocor, Strombeek-Bever, Belgium ABSTRACT- The GREAT-ER (Geo-referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers) system was developed and validated by ECETOC (European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals), as an accurate aquatic chemical exposure prediction tool for use within environmental risk assessment schemes. The GREAT-ER software was designed to calculate the distribution of predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) of down-the-drain household consumer chemicals in surface waters. The system uses an ARC/INFO - ArcView (®ESRI) based Geographical Information System (GIS) for data storage and visualization, combined with simple mathematical models for prediction of chemical fate. Prediction of PECs of human pharmaceuticals with GREAT-ER is illustrated for a wide variety of compounds (including Ethinyl Oestradiol, Paracetamol, Aspirin, Clofibrate and Oxytetracycline) in the Aire (UK), Lambro (Italy) and Rur (Germany) river basins using available national usage data for each of the countries, a knowledge of the preceding bio-transformation within the human body and likely environmental fate. Where possible, comparisons are also made between the predicted environmental concentrations of the pharmaceuticals and measured concentrations (MECs) reported from monitoring studies. Risk characterization employing the PECs or MECs and PNEC (predicted-no-effect-concentrations) values derived from ecotoxicological data was possible for a sub-set of the compounds for which ecotoxicity data are available. Key words: GREAT-ER, human pharmaceuticals |
