PERK: an interactive web-based tool to model environmental risk assessment

Prediction of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) concentration in the different environmental matrices is a key decision parameter in the environmental risk assessment of an API. Specific guidelines were formulated to calculate and model the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) and environmental risk assessment based on the guidelines developed by European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products and United States Food and Drug Administration.
Based on these guidelines several variables such as human consumption data, metabolism and the eco-toxicity have been demonstrated to be useful in approximating different APIs exposures to the environment. Several studies and methods have proposed different PEC models to assess the risk of APIs in the environment using the suggested and new variables.
The aim of this study is to build a software application to facilitate automated modelling and reporting PEC of a comprehensive set of pharmaceuticals derived from a wide range of therapeutic classes with different modes of action and prescription in England. A web-based interactive tool, PERK, has been developed using R, to visualize PEC and identify the hotspots for the environmental risk assessment.