Ecological Risk Assessment of Caffeine in Aquatic Ecosystems of Latin America: Risk Quotients and Species Sensitivity Distribution Approaches

LAVARELLO FRANCISCO; ITURBURU FERNANDO GASTÓN; CALDERÓN GABRIELA ; CUDINI VALENTINA; MENONE MIRTA LUJÁN

Congreso; SETAC Latin America 14th Biennial Meeting; 2021

SETAC

Caffeine has become in one of the most consumed psychoactive substances in the world, not only as a natural ingredient of food and infusions, but also as a component of energy drinks and medicines. It is included in the group of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and there are records of its presence in water ecosystems worldwide. While wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have shown to be able to remove high percentages of caffeine in the water, this removal capacity is related to the available methods and technologies. In this context, the objective of this study was to identify the Ecological Risk Assessment of caffeine concentrations reported in aquatic ecosystems of Latin America. For this purpose, the Risk Quotients (RQs) and Species Sensitivity Distribution approaches were used. We proposed two possible scenarios for RQs, using mean and maximum values. International reports were employed as source of toxicity data and measured environmental concentrations (MECs), while databases (US-EPA Ecotox, Envirotox, etc.) were employed for toxicity data. Geographical Information Systems were used to display the RQs for each point and if the MECs exceed or not the calculated Hazardous Concentration 5% (HC5), in those cases with reported geo-references. A total number of 103 reports of MECs of caffeine (13 publications) were obtained from freshwater bodies of Latin America (particularly from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and México). The 41 % of the sites showed RQmean > 1 and 46 % RQmax > 1, alerting for a possible risk for the biota inhabiting these ecosystems. On the other hand and considering the SSD approach, a HC5= 7.275 ug/L was calculated, with 18 % of the sites exceeding this value. The high proportion of sites with caffeine MECs that become a risk for aquatic biota gains relevance since the annual increase of its consumption all around the world, and the impossibility of having WWTPs with the best available technology to remove CECs in many places of Latin America.