Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Risk Assessment of Antibiotic in the Aquatic Environment in China Nationwide, A Review

Antibiotics have been an emerging concern due to the potential adverse threat on the environment and human health. Studies on the presence and fate of antibiotics in Chinese aqueous environments have increased in the past few years. Nevertheless, the distribution of antibiotics contributing to the development and dissemination of antibiotic resistance in China nationwide remains unclear. This review summarizes the temporal and spatial distribution of antibiotics in different aqueous environmental systems across the China in the last decade. In all, 79 antibiotics with the concentration range of 0.04 ng/L~6.54 μg/L have been detected in the aquatic environment in China. The Bohai Sea had the highest annual average concentration of total antibiotics ranging from 5.66 to 1552.59 ng/L. The peak of antibiotics in four typical water systems occurred in different years. Antibiotics in the surface water of Northern China accounted for 47.0% of the total annual average concentrations in four regions. Sulfonamides, tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones were the dominant compounds both for seawater and surface water. In contrast, β-lactams, sulfonamides and fluoroquinolones were the most abundant for the wastewater treatment plants. That indicated that β-lactams were from human medicine and tetracyclines were from veterinary antibiotics. The risk assessment demonstrated ofloxacin, norfloxacin and enrofloxacin had posed the higher risk than other antibiotics. The review provides an improved understanding on aquatic antibiotics pollution to outline the Chinese scenario and addresses the prospects for future research relating to the issues requiring urgent attention.