Prednisolone
Summary
Persistence. It cannot be excluded that prednisolone is persistent, due to the lack of data.
Bioaccumulation. Prednisolone has low potential for bioaccumulation.
Toxicity. It cannot be excluded that prednisolone is toxic, due to the lack of data.
Risk. Although both exposure and efficacy data are incomplete for hydrocortisone and prednisolone, there are no strong indications of environmental risk for these two substances. On the contrary, the fish plasma model and reported levels in the environment indicate low risk.
For this summary information, the information on bioaccumulation comes from previous environmental information on the fass.se. Environmental information is missing for prednisolone on fass.se (2024-10-23). The risk comes from the report from Goodpoint.
Detailed information
Fass environmental information for Precortalon aquosum (prednisolone) from MSD (downloaded 2013-07-02)
Hazard
Persistence: No data.
Bioaccumulation: "Log Kow = 1.62 (QSAR estimate). BCF = 3.5 (QSAR estimate)."
Toxicity: No data.
Risk
"PEC/PNEC could not be calculated due to lack of ecotoxicity data which justifies the phrase "Risk of environmental impact of prednisolone cannot be excluded, since no ecotoxicity data are available.”
Pharmaceutial residues in the aquatic environment
Report Pharmaceutial residues in the Stockholm aquatic environment. Prednisolone has been measured in treated wastewater at concentrations up to 50 ng/L.
Report Goodpoint 2020
Comparative assessment of environmental risk when using the corticosteroids betamethasone, budesonide, hydrocortisone and prednisolone from a Swedish perspective.
The use of both betamethasone and budesonide poses an environmental risk, and exchange with synthetic glucocorticoids with a lower environmental risk is to be advocated in cases where it is possible from a clinical perspective. Hydrocortisone and prednisolone have a lower environmental risk but are rarely medically interchangeable alternatives to betamethasone and budesonide. Note that corresponding environmental risk assessments have not been made for other synthetic glucocorticoids that are available on the Swedish market, and which could possibly constitute exchange alternatives. No actions are recommended with regard to replacement of hydrocortisone and prednisolone as their use poses a low environmental risk given the current state of knowledge.
References
- Fass för vårdpersonal.
- Stockholm Vatten. Läkemedelsrester i Stockholms vattenmiljö. 2010. ISBN 978-91-633-6642-0.
- Goodpoint. Jämförande bedömning av miljörisk vid användning av kortikosteroiderna betametason, budesonid, hydrokortison samt prednisolon. Stockholm: Goodpoint; 2020, uppdaterad 2024-10-16.
Author: Health and Medical Care Administration, Region Stockholm