Eawag: Environmental Chemistry: ERAPharm

Within the EU-project ERAPharm (Environmental Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals) we aim to further develop risk assessment guidelines for pharmaceuticals in four particular areas: (i) We develop a GIS-based framework (VetScen) to identify European regions with a high tendency for loss of veterinary pharmaceuticals to surface waters; (ii) We use discharge and concentration data from various field studies to evaluate the ability of the two models MACRO and PRZM to model the loss of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals to surface waters; (iii) We study the behaviour of three b-blockers (atenolol, propranolol, metoprolol) in sewage treatment plants and Swiss rivers and compare measurements with model predictions from the GREAT-ER model; (iv) We evaluate the ability of existing quantitative structure-property relationships to estimate biodegradation half-lives (BioWin) and sorption properties (KocWin, pp-LFERs) of pharmaceuticals.

Contractor

EU (Contract No: SSPI-CT-2003-511135)

Publications

Alder AC, Schaffner C, Majewsky M, Klasmeier J, Fenner K (2010): Fate of beta-blocker human pharmaceuticals in surface water: Comparison of measured and simulated concentrations in the Glatt Valley Watershed, Switzerland. Water Res 44, 936-948

Schneider MK, Stamm C, Fenner K. 2007. Selecting scenarios to assess exposure of surface waters to veterinary medicines in Europe. Environmental Science & Technology, 41, 4669-4676. http://library.eawag.ch/EAWAG-Publications/pdf/Eawag_04885.pdf

Maurer M, Escher BI, Richle P, Schaffner C, Alder AC. 2007. Elimination of beta-blockers in sewage treatment plants. Water Research 41(7), 1614-1622.
http://library.eawag.ch/EAWAG-Publications/pdf/Eawag_04791.pdf

Knacker, T., Duis, K., Ternes, T., Fenner, K., Escher, B., Schmitt, H., Römbke, J., Garric, J., Hutchinson, T. & Boxall, A.B.A. (2005). The EU-project ERAPharm. Incentives for the further development of guidance documents? ESPR – Environ. Sci. & Pollut. Res. 12 (2), 62-65.