The enzyme toilet rim block ‘pCure’ does not efficiently remove drug residues in a hospital setting - exemplifying the importance of on-site implementation testing
| Autor: | Sofia Svebrant, Therese Olsen, Jim Larsson, Patrik Öhagen, Hanna Söderström, Josef D. Järhult |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Infection Ecology & Epidemiology, Vol 8, Iss 1 (2018) |
| Druh dokumentu: | article |
| ISSN: | 2000-8686 20008686 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/20008686.2018.1553463 |
| Popis: | Introduction: Negative environmental effects of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are increasingly recognized, especially concerning antibiotics, and hospitals are important point sources. “pCure” is a toilet rim block containing API-degrading enzymes; the producing company claims positive in vitro results but no implementation studies have been performed. Materials and methods: In a university hospital setting, 16 weeks were randomized to installation or no installation of pCure in all 261 toilets connected to the same cesspit where sewage water was sampled daily. Ninety-six samples were analyzed for 102 APIs using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Results and Discussion: Fifty-one APIs were detected with a large variation in levels but no significant differences in the initial statistical analysis. More statistical testing of API level ratios (pCure installed/not installed) yielded some cases of significant decrease. Differences were small and not consistent when comparing means and medians. We cannot exclude a small pCure effect but clearly pCure has no effect of biological importance. Conclusion: pCure is not useful to reduce drug residue discharge in a hospital setting. In a bigger perspective, our study exemplifies that products claiming to reduce an environmental problem need to be tested in on-site implementation studies by independent researchers before reaching the market. |
| Databáze: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
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