title: Balancing the health benefits and environmental risks of pharmaceuticals: Diclofenac as an example.
abstract: Pharmaceuticals are designed to improve human and animal health, but even the most beneficial pharmaceuticals might raise some questions concerning the consequences of exposure to non-target organisms. To illustrate this situation and using diclofenac as a case-study, we analyze global consumption and occurrence data to identify hot spots of consumption without occurrence data, review the scientific literature on the harmful environmental effects to determine whether the observed concentrations in freshwater are of environmental concern, summarize the current pharmaceutical and environmental policies to highlight policy gaps, and suggest a series of research and policy recommendations, which can be summarized as follows: we need to improve the current knowledge on occurrence in freshwaters to properly implement environmental policies (i), diclofenac might pose a risk to non-target organisms in freshwater (ii); the harmful effects that some pharmaceuticals may have on the environment are not always addressed by environmental policies (iii).
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Carrer Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain. Electronic address: vicenc.acuna@icra.cat.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Acuña
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Carrer Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ginebreda
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Carrer Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mor
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Carrer Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; ICREA, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petrovic
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Carrer Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Campus Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sabater
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Environment, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sumpter
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Carrer Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Carrer Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barceló
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D004008:Diclofenac / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017753:Ecosystem; D058735:Environmental Policy; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D019055:No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; D012306:Risk; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D004008:Diclofenac
keywords: Diclofenac; Ecotoxicity; Environmental policies; Environmental risks; Freshwater ecosystems; Pharmaceuticals