Fate of pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) from River Yamuna, India: An ecotoxicological risk assessment approach.

The river Yamuna is a major tributary of river Ganges and is a major source of freshwater in the National Capital Territory (NCT) catering 16.8 million people. This is the first report on occurrence, fate and ecotoxicological risk assessment of various pharmaceuticals active compounds (PhACs) in the Yamuna river. In this study, spatial and temporal distribution of nine PhACs "aspirin, ibuprofen, paracetamol, caffeine, ranitidine, diclofenac, carbamazepine, codeine, and diazepam", belonging to different therapeutic groups have been reported. Nine PhACs were analyzed in all the samples collected from the NCT stretch of river Yamuna. No specific trend in the distribution of the pharmaceutical residues was observed, however, the results revealed comparably higher PhACs contamination at YMN-2 (downstream Wazirabad, at this point, Najafgarh drain joins river Yamuna). Ecotoxicological risk assessment was carried out using Hazard quotients (HQ) for normal and worst case scenarios. The HQ showed that the levels of PhACs present in the samples were insufficient to cause acute toxicity to the flora and fauna of the river Yamuna. However, such residues could possibly cause chronic toxicity to the aquatic life and human beings as a huge amount of water of the river Yamuna is used for the drinking purposes in the NCT Delhi, the state capital of India.