Atorvastatin

Among statins, only simvastatin (up to 7.5 ng/L) and pravastatin (up to 40.4 ng/L) were identified in the raw water being these concentrations substantially higher than those found in the literature, 1 ng/L for pravastatin (Miao and Metcalfe, 2003) and 1.4 ng/L for atorvastatin and 1.0 ng/L for its metabolites o- and p-hydroxy atorvastatin in surface waters (Benotti et al., 2009). […] The last compound, gemfibrozil is the sole antilipidemic compound found (up to 3 ng/L) in a USA survey of 18 DWTPs whereas atorvastatin, simvastatin and their metabolites, the other studied compounds, were absent (Benotti et al., 2009). In our study, the two statins identified at the intake of the DWTP were eliminated by dioxychlorination (>99%) whereas bezafibrate, clofibric acid and gemfibrozil were only moderately removed with percentages of 37%, 68% and 11%, respectively although it has been reported that gemfibrozil and clofibric acid are readily oxidized with chlorine dioxide in spiked drinking water whereas bezafibrate remains unchanged (Huber et al., 2005a).

The researchers found that statins were likely to provide benefits at a substantially higher health risk than expected and that those risk levels were lower for atorvastatin and rosuvastatin than for simvastatin and pravastatin.