Ecotoxicology of human pharmaceuticals.

A review on emerging contaminants in wastewaters and the environment: current knowledge, understudied areas and recommendations for future monitoring.

Occurrence of pharmaceutical compounds in urban wastewater: Removal, mass load and environmental risk after a secondary treatment—A review

The removal of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine disruptors and illicit drugs during wastewater treatment and its impact on the quality of receiving waters.

Environmental risk assessment of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater effluents, surface waters and sediments.

http://www.geol.lsu.edu/blanford/NATORBF/14%20Pharmaceuticals%20and%20RBF/Ashton%20D%20et%20al_Sci%20of%20Total%20Env._Oct%202004.pdf

Investigating the environmental transport of human pharmaceuticals to streams in the United Kingdom.

Determination of selected human pharmaceutical compounds in effluent and surface water samples by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

The occurrence of selected human pharmaceutical compounds in UK estuaries.

Increased persistence of antifouling paint biocides when associated with paint particles.

BACKGROUND

Thiamethoxam is a systemic and contact pesticidal active substance in the neonicotinoid class of insecticides used worldwide to control a range of insects. Recently, concerns have been expressed regarding possible effects of neonicotinoids on bees and other wildlife. The DT50 of thiamethoxam in soil may be crucial to assessing the potential long-term exposure of non-target organisms to thiamethoxam. There are currently no detailed publicly available data for the field soil degradation of thiamethoxam under European conditions. We give field soil DT50 values of thiamethoxam from studies conducted in several European locations, under a range of realistic agronomic conditions.



RESULTS

Field soil DT50 values normalised to 20 °C ranged between 7.1 and 92.3 days (geomean = 31.2 days; n = 18).



CONCLUSION

The degradation rate of thiamethoxam was not significantly affected by application type, cropped fields versus bare soil, soil pH, organic matter content or repeated annual applications. Soil photolysis and leaching were negligible; therefore, calculated DT50 values were taken to represent microbial degradation. The field degradation rates of thiamethoxam were faster than those previously reported from laboratory degradation studies. They demonstrate that thiamethoxam will degrade to concentrations that are <10% of the maximum within a year of application, and will not accumulate in soil after repeated applications. © 2015 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ps.4024

Martin J Hilton

Papers

Investigating the environmental transport of human pharmaceuticals to streams in the United Kingdom.

Determination of selected human pharmaceutical compounds in effluent and surface water samples by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

The occurrence of selected human pharmaceutical compounds in UK estuaries.

Increased persistence of antifouling paint biocides when associated with paint particles.

The degradation rate of thiamethoxam in European field studies.