Fate, risk and management of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the Norwegian sewage system

Increased attention is currently being paid to pharmaceutical substances and personal care products (PPCPs) as a class of environmental contaminants. PPCPs can enter the aquatic environment following manufacture, use, disposal or ingestion/excretion. The majority of PPCPs are thought to enter aquatic systems following ingestion and subsequent excretion in the form of the non-metabolised parent compounds or as metabolites. Inputs of pharmaceutical substances into aquatic systems have led to their occurrenc e being reported in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent, river and marine surface water and ground water. Much of the work conducted to date has been in Europe and the United States with very little or no work being performed in Norway. The absence of data for Norway is significant since use patterns, volumes and wastewater treatment systems differ from country to country and occurrence data obtained in Europe will not be applicable to Norway. In addition, the risks that PPCPs pose to the aquatic e nvironment are not so well defined. Environmental risk assessments require data on the occurrence, exposure and a concentration-response assessment of the substance. At present insufficient data are available on the specific effects, in particular chronic , that PPCPs may have on non-target aquatic organisms. This proposal seeks to address these issues through developing a priority list of PPCPs specific to Norway, establishing the occurrence, source, inputs and fate of PPCPs into the Norwegian aquatic env ironment, evaluating different treatment processes specific to Norway and generating much required ecotoxicological effects data. All these data will then be used to inform an assessment of the risk posed by PPCPs to the Norwegian aquatic environment.