Spatial variation in the detection rates of frequently studied pharmaceuticals in Asian, European and North American rivers

Pharmaceutical consumption has expanded rapidly during the last century and their persistent presence in the environment has become a major concern. Unfortunately, our understanding of the distribution of pharmaceuticals in surface water and their effects on aquatic biota and public health is limited. Here, we explore patterns in the detection rate of the most frequently studied pharmaceuticals in 64 rivers from 22 countries using bi-clustering algorithms and subsequently analyze the results in the context of regional differences in pharmaceutical consumption habits, social and environmental factors, and removal-efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). We find that 20% of the pharmaceuticals included in this analysis are pervasively present in all the surface waterbodies. Several pharmaceuticals also display low overall positive detection rates; however, they exhibit significant spatial variability and their detection rates are consistently lower in Western European and North America (WEOG) rivers in comparison to Asian rivers. Our analysis suggests the important role of pharmaceutical consumption and population in governing these patterns, however the role of WWTP efficiency appeared to be limited. We were constrained in our ability to assess the role of hydrology, which most likely also plays an important role in regulating pharmaceuticals in rivers. Most importantly though, we demonstrate the ability of our algorithm to provide probabilistic estimates of the detection rate of pharmaceuticals that were not studied in a river, an exercise that could be useful in prioritizing pharmaceuticals for future study.