Human health and ecological risk assessment of 98 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) detected in Indian surface and wastewaters.

The release of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in environmental waters has become an urgent issue due to their pseudo-persistent traits. The present study was undertaken to conduct a screening-level risk assessment of 98 PPCPs, detected in different water matrices (treated wastewater, surface water, and groundwater) of India, for evaluating ecological risk (risk to fish, daphnia, and algae), human health risk, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) selection risk by following risk quotient (RQ) based methodology. In the present study, 47% of the detected PPCPs in Indian waters were found to exert a possible risk (RQ > 1) to either aquatic species and human health, or cause AMR selection risk. 17 out of 25 antibiotics detected in the environmental waters were found to pose a threat of AMR selection. 11 out of 49 pharmaceuticals were found to exert human health risk from ingesting contaminated surface water, whereas only 2 pharmaceuticals out of 25 were found to exert risk from the intake of groundwater. Very high RQs (>1000) for few pharmaceuticals were obtained, signifying a great potential of the detected PPCPs in causing severe health concern, aquatic toxicity, and AMR spread. Within India, special attention needs to be given to the pharmaceutical hubs, as the environmental waters in these regions were found to be severely contaminated with drug residues resulting in extremely high RQs. The present study will be helpful in prioritizing the detected PPCPs in the environmental waters of India, for which immediate attention and enforceable guidelines are required.