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Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems
The increasing use of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for magnetic resonance imaging is leading to widespread contamination of freshwater and drinking water systems. Contrary to previous assumptions that GBCAs are stable throughout the water cycle, they can degrade. The stability of GBCAs d...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7256513/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32599421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.115966 |
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author | Brünjes, Robert Hofmann, Thilo |
author_facet | Brünjes, Robert Hofmann, Thilo |
author_sort | Brünjes, Robert |
collection | PubMed |
description | The increasing use of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for magnetic resonance imaging is leading to widespread contamination of freshwater and drinking water systems. Contrary to previous assumptions that GBCAs are stable throughout the water cycle, they can degrade. The stability of GBCAs depends largely on their organic ligands, but also on the physicochemical conditions. There is specific concern regarding UV end-of-pipe water treatments, which may degrade GBCAs. Degradation products in drinking water supplies can increase the risk of adverse health effects. This is of particular relevance where the raw water for drinking water production has a higher proportion of recycled wastewater. GBCAs concentrations in aquatic systems, often referred to as anthropogenic gadolinium, are determined using a variety of calculation methods. Where anthropogenic gadolinium concentrations are low, the inconsistent use of these methods results in high discrepancies and high levels of uncertainty. The current COVID-19 crisis will, in the short-term, drastically decrease the input of GBCAs to freshwater systems. Temporal variations in anthropogenic gadolinium concentrations in river water can be used to better understand river-aquifer interactions and groundwater flow velocities. Collecting urine from all patients following MRI examinations could be a way forward to halt the generally increasing concentrations of Gd in drinking water systems and recover this technologically critical element. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7256513 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72565132020-05-29 Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems Brünjes, Robert Hofmann, Thilo Water Res Review The increasing use of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for magnetic resonance imaging is leading to widespread contamination of freshwater and drinking water systems. Contrary to previous assumptions that GBCAs are stable throughout the water cycle, they can degrade. The stability of GBCAs depends largely on their organic ligands, but also on the physicochemical conditions. There is specific concern regarding UV end-of-pipe water treatments, which may degrade GBCAs. Degradation products in drinking water supplies can increase the risk of adverse health effects. This is of particular relevance where the raw water for drinking water production has a higher proportion of recycled wastewater. GBCAs concentrations in aquatic systems, often referred to as anthropogenic gadolinium, are determined using a variety of calculation methods. Where anthropogenic gadolinium concentrations are low, the inconsistent use of these methods results in high discrepancies and high levels of uncertainty. The current COVID-19 crisis will, in the short-term, drastically decrease the input of GBCAs to freshwater systems. Temporal variations in anthropogenic gadolinium concentrations in river water can be used to better understand river-aquifer interactions and groundwater flow velocities. Collecting urine from all patients following MRI examinations could be a way forward to halt the generally increasing concentrations of Gd in drinking water systems and recover this technologically critical element. The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2020-09-01 2020-05-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7256513/ /pubmed/32599421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.115966 Text en © 2020 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Review Brünjes, Robert Hofmann, Thilo Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
title | Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
title_full | Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
title_fullStr | Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
title_full_unstemmed | Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
title_short | Anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
title_sort | anthropogenic gadolinium in freshwater and drinking water systems |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7256513/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32599421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.115966 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT brunjesrobert anthropogenicgadoliniuminfreshwateranddrinkingwatersystems AT hofmannthilo anthropogenicgadoliniuminfreshwateranddrinkingwatersystems |