β-blockers in the environment: Distribution, transformation, and ecotoxicity

Yi, Ming; Sheng, Qi; Sui, Qian; Lu, Huijie

β-blockers in the environment: Distribution, transformation, and ecotoxicity

2020

Yi, Ming | Sheng, Qi | Sui, Qian | Lu, Huijie

β-blockers are a class of medications widely used to treat cardiovascular disorders, including abnormal heart rhythms, high blood pressure, and angina pectoris. The prevalence of β-blockers has generated a widespread concern on their potential chronic toxicity on aquatic organisms, highlighting the necessity of comprehensive studies on their environmental distribution, fate, and toxicity. This review summarizes the up-to-date knowledge on the source, global distribution, analytical methods, transformation, and toxicity of β-blockers. Twelve β-blockers have been detected in various environmental matrices, displaying significant temporal and spatial variations. β-blockers can be reduced by 0–99% at wastewater treatment plants, where secondary processes contribute to the majority of removal. Advanced oxidation processes, e.g., photocatalysis and combined UV/persulfate can transform β-blockers more rapidly and completely than conventional wastewater treatment processes, but the transformation products could be more toxic than the parent compounds. Propranolol, especially its (S)-enantiomer, exhibits the highest toxicity among all β-blockers. Future research towards improved detection methods, more efficient and cost-effective removal techniques, and more accurate toxicity assessment is needed to prioritize β-blockers for environmental monitoring and control worldwide.

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