Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewater of north Indian cities and risk assessment

Abstract

Six pharmaceuticals of different categories, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, diclofenac), anti-epileptic (carbamazepine), and anti-microbial (trimethoprim), were investigated in wastewater of the urban areas of Ghaziabad and Lucknow, India. Samples were concentrated by solid phase extraction (SPE) and determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. The SPE-HPLC method was validated according to the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. All the six drugs were detected in wastewater of Ghaziabad, whereas naproxen was not detected in Lucknow wastewater. Results suggest that levels of these detected drugs were relatively higher in Ghaziabad as compared to those in Lucknow, and diclofenac was the most frequently detected drug in both the study areas. Detection of these drugs in wastewater reflects the importance of wastewater inputs as a source of pharmaceuticals. In terms of the regional distribution of compounds in wastewater of two cities, higher spatial variations (coefficient of variation 112.90-459.44%) were found in the Lucknow wastewater due to poor water exchange ability. In contrast, lower spatial variation (162.38-303.77%) was observed in Ghaziabad. Statistical analysis results suggest that both data were highly skewed, and populations in two study areas were significantly different (p < 0.05). A risk assessment based on the calculated risk quotient (RQ) in six different bioassays (bacteria, duckweed, algae, daphnia, rotifers, and fish) showed that the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) posed high (RQ >1) risk to all the test species. The present study would contribute to the formulation of guidelines for regulation of such emerging pharmaceutical contaminants in the environment.

The significance of different health institutions and their respective contributions of active pharmaceutical ingredients to wastewater

“…Carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, and eslicarbazepine acetate, as structural relatives, can also be traced in the environment. Carbamazepine showed persistence after irradiation with sunlight (Matamoros et al, 2009) and has frequently been detected in the environment (Capdeville and Budzinski, 2011;Singh et al, 2014). For this reason, it has been used as an environmental tracer (Gasser et al, 2011).…”

Mass loading and removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, including psychoactive and illicit drugs and artificial sweeteners, in five sewage treatment plants in India

“…Thus, the 31 environmental emission of PPCPs can be expected to be high in Indian patients purchase medications without a prescription [36]. 48 Based on the measured concentrations in wastewater, an 49 estimated loading of antibiotics in a STP in India was reported 50 to range from 15.4 to 1395 g/day [36]. Inadvertent use of antibiotics 51 in India has led to an increase in the occurrence of drug resistant 52 microorganisms (i.e., superbugs) in the Indian environment [19].…”

Health Effects Associated with Wastewater Treatment, Reuse, and Disposal

“…The compounds were categorized based on the ecotoxicity data acquired by bioluminescence and respirometry assays and by predictions using the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) ecological structure-activity relationship (ECOSAR™). Singh et al (2014) al., 2014). It was confirmed that the WWTPs could not remove these antidepressants completely and the residual drugs in sewage effluents might pose an environmental hazard based on the determined risk quotients.…”