The Iberian study, which involved researchers from the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) of the University of Porto (UP), warns of the toxic effects of metformin, a drug used to treat diabetes, on aquatic ecosystems.
Metformin is used to control blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.
In a statement, the UP center warned that “there is an increase in the amount of metformin constantly being dumped into the aquatic environment,” which is happening “in a context marked by an exponential rise in diabetes.”
According to a summary by CIIMAR to Lusa, it is “one of the pharmaceutical products found with greater frequency and high concentration in waters around the world.”
“The danger is great given that aquatic organisms are exposed to this drug throughout their life cycle, and metformin, like many other drugs, has been found to be a biologically active molecule that acts at very low concentrations,” the report says.
The Iberian study, which involved CIIMAR researchers, was carried out with other Portuguese organizations, including the University of Tras os Montes and Alto Douro, and with Spanish organizations, such as the University of Santiago de Compostela.
This study, published in the environmental science and technology journal Environmental Science & Technology, was funded by the Spanish-Portuguese program INTERREG VA (POCTEP) and was developed by the NOR-WATER project led by CIIMAR.
The researchers sought to evaluate the effects of metformin on aquatic ecosystems in order to contribute to a more accurate assessment of the drug’s environmental risk to zebrafish.
“The results leave no doubt. Metformin turned out to be one of the most frequently detected pollutants in the water of the studied hydrographic basins at average concentrations above 400 ng/l. [nanograma por litro]”, the abstract says.
The researchers warn that, “according to the literature, the average concentration of metformin in surface waters around the world increased significantly between 2006 (100 ng/l) and 2022 (2362.9 ng/l)”.
As a result, citing CIIMAR, “the latest revision by the European Union (EU) of the list of priority substances contained in the Water Framework Directive has proposed the inclusion of metformin as a priority substance.”
“[Isto] reflects the urgent need to assess the risk of this drug to the health of aquatic ecosystems,” emphasizes the UP center.
However, according to the latest revision of the EU list, the predicted concentration of metformin without effect on aquatic organisms (PNEC) is 1030 µg/l. [microgramas por litro]while the proposed maximum environmental concentration of metformin considered safe, based on environmental quality standards (EQS), is 160 µg/L.
Taking into account the published study, CIIMAR cautions that the study found “significant effects at concentrations of 390 ng/L, i.e. several orders of magnitude lower than the proposed PNEC and EQS values.”
That’s why the researchers argue that the list of priority substances “needs to be reviewed and updated to safer values.”
“The proposed environmental quality criteria for metformin are far from protecting environmental health and as such should be updated to safer values in light of this and other evaluation studies in chronic long-term exposure,” concludes the researcher from CIIMAR – et al. -the author of this study is Teresa Neupart, cited in the communiqué.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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