Ecotoxicological characterization of the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine using eight aquatic species: baseline study for future higher tier tests

Abstract

Ecotoxicological effects of the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine (CBZ) were investigated in one primary producer (Desmodesmus subspicatus) and seven invertebrate species (Daphnia magna, Daphnia pulex, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Gammarus fossarum, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, Lumbriculus variegatus and Chironomus riparius) using OECD and US EPA guidelines for chronic toxicity testing. The present data set was used to conduct a hazard assessment for CBZ including confirmatory data. While most of our results were in accordance with previous studies, published effect data for C. dubia and D. pulex could not be confirmed, even though they have previously been considered to be the most sensitive invertebrate species to CBZ exposure. The non-biting midge, C. riparius, was the most sensitive test organism in the present study. From an EC₁₀ of 406 µg/L and a no observed effect concentration (NOEC) of 400 µg/L, a predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) of 8 µg/L was calculated. With regard to realistic predicted and measured environmental concentrations, the environmental risk can be considered as low for CBZ when the assessment is based on laboratory-based effect data. To conduct a refined and more realistic assessment, this study provides foundational data for two future, higher tier studies: one multiple-stressor experiment and one mesocosm study.

Keywords:

• Pharmaceutical
• risk
• hazard
• chronic
• Chironomus
• Ceriodaphnia
• Daphnia; Potamopyrgus; Lumbriculus
• algae

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Dr. Eng. Karel De Schamphelaere, Jolien Depecker, and all members of the Environmental Toxicology Unit (GhEnToxLab) at Ghent University for their assistance with the C. dubia toxicity test. The present study was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the funding measure ‘Regional Water Resources Management for Sustainable Protection of Waters in Germany – ReWaM’ under the project ‘NiddaMan’, (project identifier: 02WRM1367A).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10934529.2018.1562819.