Anthropogenic gadolinium as a microcontaminant in tap water used as drinking water in urban areas and megacities

Gadolinium chelates have been used since 1988 as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and produce positive anthropogenic Gd anomalies in rare earth element (REE) patterns of river and lake waters. These Gd compounds are not removed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) due to their high stabilities, and are transferred to surface waters with the clearwater discharge from WWTP. Through natural and induced bank filtration, the anthropogenic Gd is also transported into groundwater. To date, there are no related acute health risks known, but the potential long-term effects of exposure to low doses have not been studied. Here REE data is presented for tap water from the City of Berlin, Germany, a metropolitan area that is known for its anthropogenic Gd-rich rivers and groundwater. Natural and induced bank filtration play important roles in Berlin's freshwater resource management. Therefore, the extent to which municipal tap water that is used as drinking water is affected by anthropogenic Gd was investigated. Large positive Gd anomalies were found in tap water samples from the western districts of Berlin, indicating the presence of up to 18 ng/L of anthropogenic Gd on top of a geogenic background of 0.54 ng/L. In marked contrast, the amount of anthropogenic Gd in tap water from the eastern districts of Berlin is negligible to minor (maximum of 0.18 ng/L on top of a geogenic background of 0.26 ng/L). This strong regional difference likely results from the specific historical situation of Berlin, where before the re-unification of Germany in 1990, natural and induced bank filtration were necessities in isolated West Berlin, but unimportant in East Berlin, a situation that has seen little change during the past 20 years. Thus, drinking water resources in the western part of Berlin are more strongly affected by anthropogenic Gd than those in the eastern part. The high anthropogenic Gd concentrations found in some tap waters in Berlin clearly show that the Gd initially used as contrast agent is removed neither during natural nor artificial water treatment. This is further evidence for the high stability and long environmental half-lives of these compounds. Considering that the amount of anthropogenic Gd in the Havel River in Berlin has increased more than 4-fold over the past 15 years and that water migration from the Havel River to the groundwater wells take years to decades, the amounts of anthropogenic Gd in West Berlin tap water will increase further over the next few years. Due to its presence in tap water that is consumed as drinking water, millions of people are exposed to low doses of these anthropogenic Gd chelates. Additional data for the City of London, UK, for example, indicate that this is not a local phenomenon confined to the City of Berlin, but rather a common feature of tap water in metropolitan areas and megacities in countries with highly developed health care systems. Hence, the REE distribution in tap waters used for human consumption should be monitored, especially since the anthropogenic Gd chelates can also be used as tracers for emerging microcontaminants such as steroids, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.