The European Commission has adopted the 5th update of the Watch List — a list of substances suspected of posing risks to both environmental and human health through aquatic exposure. The revised list includes 12 substances, ranging from plant protection products and antibiotics to human pharmaceuticals and a tyre rubber antioxidant.

EU Member State experts identified these substances as having potentially widespread impacts on aquatic ecosystems and public health. Monitoring will take place over the next two years in selected representative surface waters to gather data on concentrations and environmental presence.

Selected substances include:

• Antibiotics: norfloxacin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, and tylosin, due to their contribution to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
• Azole fungicides (10 substances including ketoconazole, itraconazole, propiconazole), selected based on hazard potential and AMR relevance.
• Pharmaceuticals: fluoxetine (antidepressant), propranolol (beta-blocker), dronedarone and amiodarone (antiarrhythmics).

If the collected data confirms broad environmental presence and risk, the substances may be proposed for inclusion in the Priority Substances list under the Water Framework Directive — which would entail setting EU-wide maximum concentration thresholds and possibly implementing emission control measures at the source.

The inclusion of pharmaceuticals in the 5th Watch List underscores the increasing importance of pharmaceutical pollution in European water policy.

Learn more: Read the full JRC report

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