Prioritizing Human Use Antibiotics for Environmental Health Management and Estimating Their Environmental Concentrations in Korean Waterway

인체용 항생제의 우선관리대상 선정과 물환경 중 오염농도 추정

Antibiotics are manufactured and used for specific physiological functions, hence they may exert adverse ecological consequences when they are in contact with nontarget organisms. In the last decade, many reports have been made on the occurrences of various antibiotic compounds in surface water, and their potential impact to the environment has become an increasing concern. This study was conducted to prioritize antibiotic substances with potential environment risk in Korea. Human use antibiotics with an EIC (Expected Introduction Concentration) value greater than $1{\mu}g/l$, US FDA's action limit criteria, were selected. In order to calculate a worst-case EIC for each substance, annual production volume (in kg) of each antibiotic substance was derived using the Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (KPMA)'s monetary database. Sixteen substances were preliminarily selected. The EICs of the 16 antibiotic substances were refined with the excretion rate of the parent substances. Ten antibiotic substances were identified to have EIC-corrected greater than $1{\mu}g/l$, which include Amoxicillin ($15.8{\mu}g/l$), Cefaclor ($10.1{\mu}/l$), Roxithromycin ($4.2{\mu}g/l$), Cephradine ($4.5{\mu}g/l$), Cefatrizine ($2.6{\mu}g/l$), Cefadroxil ($3.3{\mu}g/l$), Aztreonam ($2.3{\mu}g/l$), Ceftazidime ($2.8{\mu}g/l$), Ribostamycin ($1.3{\mu}g/l$), and Ceftezole ($1.3{\mu}g/l$). Additional risk assessments for these antibiotic substances are suggested.