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Sumpter JP, Runnalls TJ, Donnachie RL, Owen SF. A comprehensive aquatic risk assessment of the beta-blocker propranolol, based on the results of over 600 research papers. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 793:148617. [PMID: 34182447 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
A comprehensive aquatic environmental risk assessment (ERA) of the human pharmaceutical propranolol was conducted, based on all available scientific literature. Over 200 papers provided information on environmental concentrations (77 of which provided river concentrations) and 98 dealt with potential environmental effects. The median concentration of propranolol in rivers was 7.1 ng/L (range of median values of individual studies 0.07 to 89 ng/L), and the highest individual value was 590 ng/L. Sixty-eight EC50 values for 35 species were available. The lowest EC50 value was 0.084 mg/L. A species sensitivity distribution (SSD) provided an HC50 value of 6.64 mg/L and an HC5 value of 0.22 mg/L. Thus, there was a difference of nearly 6 orders of magnitude between the median river concentration and the HC50 value, and over 4 orders of magnitude between the median river concentration and the HC5 value. Even if an assessment factor of 100 was applied to the HC5 value, to provide considerable protection to all species, the safety margin is over 100-fold. However, nearly half of all papers reporting effects of propranolol did not provide an EC50 value. Some reported that very low concentrations of propranolol caused effects. The lowest concentration reported to cause an effect - in fact, a range of biochemical and physiological effects on mussels - was 0.3 ng/L. In none of these 'low concentration' papers was a sigmoidal concentration-response relationship obtained. Although inclusion of data from these papers in the ERA cause a change in the conclusion reached, we are sceptical of the repeatability of these 'low concentration' results. We conclude that concentrations of propranolol present currently in rivers throughout the world do not constitute a risk to aquatic organisms. We discuss the need to improve the quality of ecotoxicology research so that more robust ERAs acceptable to all stakeholders can be completed.
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Affiliation(s)
- John P Sumpter
- Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom.
| | - Tamsin J Runnalls
- Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom
| | - Rachel L Donnachie
- Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom; Now at Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2A2, United Kingdom
| | - Stewart F Owen
- AstraZeneca, Global Environment, Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 4TF, United Kingdom
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Martin OV, Adams J, Beasley A, Belanger S, Breton RL, Brock TCM, Buonsante VA, Galay Burgos M, Green J, Guiney PD, Hall T, Hanson M, Harris MJ, Henry TR, Huggett D, Junghans M, Laskowski R, Maack G, Moermond CTA, Panter G, Pease A, Poulsen V, Roberts M, Rudén C, Schlekat CE, Schoeters I, Solomon KR, Staveley J, Stubblefield B, Sumpter JP, Warne MSJ, Wentsel R, Wheeler JR, Wolff BA, Yamazaki K, Zahner H, Ågerstrand M. Improving environmental risk assessments of chemicals: Steps towards evidence-based ecotoxicology. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2019; 128:210-217. [PMID: 31059916 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.04.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2019] [Revised: 04/16/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Olwenn V Martin
- Dept of Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
| | - Julie Adams
- School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Scott Belanger
- Global Product Stewardship, Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | | | - Theo C M Brock
- Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands
| | | | - Malyka Galay Burgos
- European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals, Brussels, Belgium
| | | | | | | | - Mark Hanson
- Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | | | - Tala R Henry
- Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA
| | | | - Marion Junghans
- Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology Eawag-EPFL, Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Ryszard Laskowski
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland
| | - Gerd Maack
- German Environment Agency (UBA), Dessau-Roßlau, Germany
| | - Caroline T A Moermond
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
| | - Grace Panter
- wca (previously affiliated with Syngenta Ltd., Berkshire, UK), Faringdon, UK
| | | | | | | | - Christina Rudén
- Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), Stockholm University, Sweden
| | | | | | - Keith R Solomon
- Centre for Toxicology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | | | - Bill Stubblefield
- Dept of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - John P Sumpter
- Dept of Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
| | - Michael St J Warne
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia; Queensland Department of Environment and Science, Australia; Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK
| | | | - James R Wheeler
- Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont™, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK
| | - Brian A Wolff
- Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | | | - Holly Zahner
- United States Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine, Rockville, MD, USA
| | - Marlene Ågerstrand
- Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), Stockholm University, Sweden.
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Mebane CA, Sumpter JP, Fairbrother A, Augspurger TP, Canfield TJ, Goodfellow WL, Guiney PD, LeHuray A, Maltby L, Mayfield DB, McLaughlin MJ, Ortego LS, Schlekat T, Scroggins RP, Verslycke TA. Scientific integrity issues in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: Improving research reproducibility, credibility, and transparency. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT 2019; 15:320-344. [PMID: 30609273 PMCID: PMC7313240 DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2018] [Revised: 03/26/2018] [Accepted: 12/26/2018] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
High-profile reports of detrimental scientific practices leading to retractions in the scientific literature contribute to lack of trust in scientific experts. Although the bulk of these have been in the literature of other disciplines, environmental toxicology and chemistry are not free from problems. While we believe that egregious misconduct such as fraud, fabrication of data, or plagiarism is rare, scientific integrity is much broader than the absence of misconduct. We are more concerned with more commonly encountered and nuanced issues such as poor reliability and bias. We review a range of topics including conflicts of interests, competing interests, some particularly challenging situations, reproducibility, bias, and other attributes of ecotoxicological studies that enhance or detract from scientific credibility. Our vision of scientific integrity encourages a self-correcting culture that promotes scientific rigor, relevant reproducible research, transparency in competing interests, methods and results, and education. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;00:000-000. © 2019 SETAC.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Anne LeHuray
- Chemical Management Associates, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
| | | | | | | | - Lisa S Ortego
- Bayer CropScience, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
| | - Tamar Schlekat
- Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, Florida, USA
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Riedl V, Agatz A, Benstead R, Ashauer R. Factors Affecting the Growth of Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata in Single-Species Tests: Lessons for the Experimental Design and the Reproducibility of a Multitrophic Laboratory Microcosm. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY 2019; 38:1120-1131. [PMID: 30779376 DOI: 10.1002/etc.4393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2018] [Revised: 11/17/2018] [Accepted: 02/09/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The need for an integrated risk assessment at an ecologically relevant scale (e.g., at the population/community levels) has been acknowledged. Multispecies systems with increased ecological complexity, however, are difficult if not impossible to reproduce. The laboratory-scale microcosm TriCosm (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Hydra viridissima) of intermediate complexity was developed for the reproducible assessment of chemical effects at the population/community levels. The system dynamics were repeatable in the short term, but interexperimental variation of algal dynamics in the long term triggered knock-on effects on grazer and predator populations. We present 20 experiments to assess the effects of 12 factors (test medium, vessel type/condition, shaking speed, light intensity/regime, inoculation density, medium preparation components, metal concentration/composition, buffering salt type/concentration) on algal growth in the TriCosm enclosure. Growth rates varied between ≤ 0 and 1.40 (± 0.21) and generally were greatest with increased shaking speed, light exposure, medium buffer, or aeration time. Treatments conducted in dishes with aseptically prepared, lightly buffered, and/or hardly aerated medium resulted in low growth rates. We found that inter-experimental variation of algal dynamics in the TriCosm was caused by a modification of medium preparation (omission of medium aeration) with the aim of reducing microbial contamination. Our findings highlight the facts that consistency in experimental procedures and in-depth understanding of system components are indispensable to achieve repeatability. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;00:1-13. © 2019 SETAC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Verena Riedl
- Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, York, United Kingdom
- Centre for Chemical Safety and Stewardship, Fera Science Ltd., Sand Hutton, York, United Kingdom
| | - Annika Agatz
- Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, York, United Kingdom
| | - Rachel Benstead
- Centre for Chemical Safety and Stewardship, Fera Science Ltd., Sand Hutton, York, United Kingdom
| | - Roman Ashauer
- Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, York, United Kingdom
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