PHARMACEUTICAL RESIDUES IN THE NORTHERN NORWEGIAN ENVIRONMENT

During the past decade, Pharmaceuticals have become recognised as relevant environmental contaminants. Pharmaceutical residues have been identified in practically all environmental compartments including, sea-, drinking water, sediment, soil and biota. However, only sparse information on the occurrence of pharmaceutical in the Norwegian Environment exists so far. Thus, the here presented study was designed to give a first survey on the presence of selected pharmaceuticals in Norwegian sewage effluents and to elucidate whether direct emissions of this sewage into the adjacent sea leads to elevated concentrations of the investigated compounds in the marine ecosystem. Caffeine was included as a tracer for domestic sewage. A representative number of pharmaceuticals including triclosan, diclofenac, clofibric acid, N,N-diethyl-3-toluamide (DEET), propranolol, metoprolol, carbamazepine, sertraline, paroxetine and ibuprofen. Pratically all above given compounds were found in sewage samples. However, only caffeine and ibuprofen (incl. metabolites: hydroxy-ibuprofen and carboxy-ibuprofen) were found in measurable amounts in seawater samples. The proportions of the metabolites and the parent compound were compared to those found in samples from Germany. The presentation is based on the first report dealing with occurrence and levels of pharmaceutical residues incl. caffeine in North-Norwegian sewage and surface seawater.