Therapeutic dose - potential health hazards from PPCPs in water (Master)

Last changed: 17 February 2022

The detection of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in drinking water sources has raised questions related to safety. In the absence of regulatory or other official guidance, water utilities are faced with a problem of which PPCPs should be monitored and the detection limits that should be required.

In this master project a screening method will be used for estimation of the margins of exposure (MOE) of PPCPs between the minimum therapeutic dose (MTD) and the projected daily dose that might be obtained from drinking water or wastewater. PPCPs within classes that has MOEs of less than 10,000 will be further screened to determine whether or not there was evidence of adverse effects, evidence that the PPCP is a carcinogen with therapeutic use or in animal studies, or documentation of other severe side effects.

The content of the Master thesis

This Master thesis would include:

  • Literature study of top 200 the most prescribed PPCPs in Sweden (1) and in Europe (2), creale a list of PPCPs (highlite the overlapping compounds)
  • Calculate the daily sale, use/consumption for selected compounds  
  • Describe adverse effect of selected compounds on aquatic organizms and animals, if any
  • Interpretation of results
  • Recommended measures

Requirements

The student should have knowledge in environmental engineering and experience of working in chemistry labs.

Supervisor

The supervisor is Oksana Golovko, PhD. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Sciences, Uppsala.

Facts:

  • This master thesis should be written in English.
  • Intended as a master thesis project (advanced level) in Environmental Science
  • 30 credits/20 weeks or 60 credits/40 weeks