John Wilkinson

The University of York · Environment and Geography Department

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), other emerging contaminants (ECs), and metabolites thereof are ubiquitous in the environment, both built and natural. While such compounds have been environmentally present for some time, new pharmaceuticals and replacements for other ECs phased out due to regulatory limitations are continually be...

The spatial distribution of pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and other emerging contaminants (ECs) such as plasticisers, perflourinated compounds (PFCs) and illicit drug metabolites in water and bound to suspended particulate material (SPM) is not well-understood. Here, we quantify levels of thirteen selected contaminants in water (n...

Epigenetics is, in many ways, at the forefront of the fluctuating interface between organisms and their environment. Here, control over genetic expression is exerted by three main mechanisms: methylation of DNA, microRNA (miRNA) expression, and modification to histone tails. Each epigenetic modification occurs without affecting direct changes to DN...

Significance Despite growing evidence of the deleterious effects on ecological and human health, little is known regarding the global occurrence of pharmaceuticals in rivers. Studies assessing their occurrence are available for 75 of 196 countries, with most research conducted in North America and Western Europe. This leaves large geographical regi...

Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are released into the environment during their production, use, and disposal. As pollutants, these “novel entities” can have significant impacts on human health and the natural environment. Here, we summarize the threat of API pollution to rivers around the world and call for global collaboration to address...

During their production, use, and disposal, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are released into aquatic systems. Because they are biologically active molecules, APIs have the potential to adversely affect nontarget organisms. We used the results of a global monitoring study of 61 APIs alongside available ecotoxicological and pharmacological...

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the sca...

The sixth UN Sustainable Development Goal, Clean Water and Sanitation, directly underpins other goals of Health, Life in Water and Sustainable Cities. We highlight that poor sanitation, exemplified through some of the highest concentrations of pharmaceuticals ever detected in rivers, will amplify societal and environmental stress where climate-indu...

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the sca...

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the sca...

The life-critical matrices of air and water are among the most complex chemical mixtures that are ever encountered. Ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometers, such as the Orbitrap, provide unprecedented analytical capabilities to probe the molecular composition of such matrices, but the extraction of non-targeted chemical information is impractical t...

Information on the sorption of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in soils and sediments is needed for assessing the environmental risks of these substances yet these data are unavailable for many APIs in use. Predictive models for estimating sorption could provide a solution. The performance of existing models is, however, often poor and mos...

The environmental occurrence, fate and ecotoxicity of emerging contaminants (ECs) has been the subject of increasing research, policy and public concern over the past two decades. While a wide range of publications have examined the environmental persistence and sediment/soil interactions of ECs following their discharge into aquatic environments,...

Pharmaceutical contamination of the environment is recognized as a global problem although most work has focused on Europe and North America to date and there remains a dearth of information for developing countries, including those in Africa. To address this data gap the occurrence of thirty-seven pharmaceuticals belonging to nineteen therapeutic...

Emerging contaminants (i.e. pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, and metabolites) are present in aquatic environments. Many emerging contaminants are prescription and over the counter medications such as antidepressants, beta blockers, antibiotics, cold and cough medications, opioids, antihyperglycemics, anxiety, high blood pressure, anticonvulsants, ne...

In order to assess the environmental risk of a pharmaceutical, information is needed on the sorption of the compound to solids. Here we use a high-quality database of measured sorption coefficients, all determined following internationally recognised protocols, to evaluate models that have been proposed for estimating sorption of pharmaceuticals fr...

The toxicity and fate of pharmaceuticals and other emerging micro-organic contaminants in the natural and built environments have been the focus of much research over the last twenty years. Recently, particular focus has been centred on the fate of antimicrobial chemicals, including antibiotics and antifungals. The occurrence of such chemicals in t...

The toxicity and fate of pharmaceuticals and other emerging micro-organic contaminants in the natural and built environments have been the focus of much research over the last 20 years [...]

Much of the current understanding of pharmaceutical pollution in the aquatic environment is based on research conducted in Europe, North America and other select high-income nations. One reason for this geographic disparity of data globally is the high cost and analytical intensity of the research, limiting accessibility to necessary equipment. To...

Epigenetics is, in many ways, at the forefront of the fluctuating interface between organisms and their environment. Here, control over genetic expression is exerted by three main mechanisms: methylation of DNA, microRNA (miRNA) expression, and modification to histone tails. Each epigenetic modification occurs without affecting direct changes to DN...

Organic contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and other emerging contaminants (ECs) are known to persist in the aquatic environment and many are indicated as endocrine, epigenetic, or other toxicants. Typically, the study of PPCPs/ECs in the aquatic environment is limited to their occurrence dissolved in river water....

Per capita daily contribution of PPCPs/ ECs entering English rivers was calculated. • Long chain perfluorinated compounds more likely in SPM than other contaminants. • Sewage effluent most significant source (p b 0.05) of most studied compounds. • Low levels of plasticisers and perfluorinated compounds found in river headwaters. • Environmental dis...

Organic contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and other emerging contaminants (ECs) are known to persist in the aquatic environment and many are indicated as endocrine, epigenetic, or other ecotoxins. Typically, the study of such compounds in the aquatic environment is limited to their occurrence dissolved in river wa...

Pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and other emerging contaminants (ECs) such as plasticisers, perflourinated compounds (PFCs), and illicit drug metabolites are known contaminants of the aquatic environment. Most commonly, the study of such compounds is limited to their occurrence dissolved in river, lake or ocean waters. Few studies a...

Accumulation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in sediment (n=23) and aquatic plants (n=15) was assessed by ultrasonication-assisted extraction (UAE) followed by an in-house validated method for solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Eleven POPs were selected: inter alia pharmaceuticals ace...

Many pharmaceuticals and personal care products and other emerging contaminants (PPCP/ECs) such as plasticisers and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are ecotoxic in aquatic environments. This work presents spatial distribution of PPCP/ECs (via a standardised method) from 50m upstream to 1km downstream of five sewage treatment work (STW) effluent out...

An oversupply of Phosphorus in water bodies accelerates growth of algae and higher forms of plant life to produce undesirable impacts on overall water quality. Phosphorus inputs to surface waters arise from a variety of point and nonpoint sources. However much of the P is contributed by agricultural runoff and outfall of treated (or untreated) wa...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors associated with insulin pump therapy resulting in lower HbA(1c) levels in young people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Insulin pumps were downloaded from 150 youth (81 male), ages 5-20 years. Consecutive insulin pump downloads, 3 months apart, were available for 85 (43 male) of the 150 youth and chan...

The aim of this study was to develop a partial closed-loop system to safely prevent nocturnal hypoglycemia by suspending insulin delivery when hypoglycemia is predicted in type 1 diabetes. Forty subjects with type 1 diabetes (age range 12-39 years) were studied overnight in the hospital. For the first 14 subjects, hypoglycemia (<60 mg/dl) was induc...