Integrated ecological-health risk assessment of ofloxacin

Antibiotics are emerging contaminants of significant concern, while previous research has mostly focused on their ecological or health impacts in isolation. This limited systematic research on its overall risk and the uncertainty relating to the risk evaluation is also unclear. This study addressed this gap by examining both ecological or health impacts by integrating interspecies correlation models, species sensitivity distribution curves, and health risk evaluation. Then comprehensive risk of antibiotics was calculated using economic approaches. The Wenyu River basin in China and ofloxacin were chosen as the study area and target antibiotic, respectively. The results indicate that both the ecological and health risk quotients for ofloxacin were manageable, and the level of urbanization was found to correlate with increased antibiotic risk. The economic impact on population health was greater than on ecosystems. The presence of ofloxacin in the watershed still resulted in more than $200,000 in annual economic losses, affecting both human society and the ecosystem. The assessment process, including the evaluation object, extrapolated data, and fitted curves, contributed to uncertainty in the results. These findings provide valuable insights for addressing the challenges in assessing the risks of antibiotics, emphasizing the need for integrated assessment frameworks.