Risk assessment for hydrophobic disinfectants and antiseptics as contaminants in freshwater using risk quotient and...

Increasing public use of disinfectants and antiseptics (DAs) has raised concerns about their environmental contamination and adverse effects on non-target organisms, despite critical knowledge gaps in the ecological risks posed by DAs. This study adopted the risk quotient (RQ)-based assessment and a network pharmacology-based framework to screen potential ecological risks of 42 hydrophobic DAs. Among 27 RQ-available DAs, 19 DAs were predicted to pose high ecological risks, with chlorhexidine, dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide, cetylpyridinium chloride, triclosan, and triclocarban exhibiting RQ > 100. Based on the screening criteria that the 50% effective concentrations for targets were equal to or below the predicted fish plasma concentrations, the final environmental risk-based network retained 140 targets and 214 DA-target interactions for 10 DAs. Functional analyses identified 8 core targets of the DA mixtures in fish, which were related to the behavior, endocrine, nervous system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, skeletal system, and eyes in exposed zebrafish.