Effects of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) on the freshwater rotifer Plationus patulus; impacted and non-impacted populations

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) are chemicals of emerging concern that have been detected in many of our nation’s waterways. The Rio Grande is important to the United States and to Mexico. The river receives pollutants from industrial, urban and agricultural uses that potentially affect the aquatic system. Little is known about PPCPs in the river and less is understood about their impacts on aquatic life. Plationus patulus was used to test for acute and chronic toxicity of 4 PPCPs (caffeine, triclosan, acetamidophenol, sulfamethazine). Two rotifer populations from an urban location, El Paso, TX, and remote location near Big Bend National Park (BBNP, TX) were tested to compare differences in sensitivity. 48 LC₅₀ tests for caffeine indicated that the BBNP population was more tolerant to caffeine (425 mg/L) than the El Paso population (372 mg/L) and the LC₅₀ for acetamidophenol was lower than that for caffeine (BBNP: 25 mg/L). Chronic toxicity was assessed on the BBNP population using a life cycle test. Population growth rate (r) was calculated over a range of concentrations for caffeine and acetamidophenol. For caffeine there was a significant decrease in population growth rate after 5 days between the control (0.23±0.02), 100 ppm (0.07±0.01), 200 ppm (0.06±0.012), and 300 ppm (-0.08). For acetamidophenol, even low concentrations resulted in the production of non-viable eggs and thus negative population growth rates. Results from this study will provide a better understanding of how these compounds impact aquatic invertebrates and provide data to better protect our water supplies.