Benzylpenicillin

Detailed information

Fass environmental information

Fass environmental information for Bensylpenicillin Meda (downloaded 2023-11-17).

Hazard

Persistence: "Ready degradability: Benzylpenicillin did not pass the criteria for readily biodegradability. Closed Bottle Test (OECD 301D) resulted in < 60% degradation in 28 days (Ref. 7). Inherent degradability: Benzylpenicillin did not pass the criteria for inherent biodegradability. Zahn-Wellens test (OECD 302B) resulted in < 70% degradation in 7 days (Ref. 8). Benzylpenicillin did not pass the criteria for ready biodegradability and inherent biodegradability which justifies the phrase “Benzylpenicillin is potentially persistent”."

Bioaccumulation: An experimentally derived Log K_ow of 1.83.

Toxicity: "Fresh water cyanobacteria (Microcystis aeruginosa) (Ref. 3) EC₅₀ 7 days (growth ): 6 μg/L (Modified ISO 8692). [...] According to the ECHA guideline (Ref. 2) and EMA guideline (Ref. 5) with corresponding Q&A (Ref. 6), cyanobacteria is considered to be the most sensitive species for antibiotics. However, the presented ecotoxicological data from cyanobacteria (Ref. 3) lack information on whether exponential growth is achieved throughout the complete exposure period. Hence this data cannot be used for the calculation of PNEC."

Risk

"Since there are not sufficient data for the calculation of PNEC, the phrase “Risk of environmental impact of Benzylpenicillin cannot be excluded, since there is not sufficient ecotoxicity data available” is used."

Antibiotic resistance

Studies have shown that even low concentrations of antibiotics in the environment can contribute to antibiotic resistance and therefore as little as possible should end up in our environment.

For antibiotics in general, it is recommended that these pharmaceuticals are used as restrictively as possible without jeopardise the patient's health.