Factors Affecting Spatial and Temporal Concentration Variability of Pharmaceuticals: Comparison between Two WWTPs

Abstract

Abstract:The presence of emerging organic micropollutants (such as pharmaceuticals) in sewage has been, for a long time, an issue of great concern within the international scientific debate. This item represents one of the main challenges related to a sustainable development, with particular concern to the public health control. While most of the work has been concentrated on their detection and the evaluation of their average level, little is known about the spatial and temporal variability of concentrations of these compounds in the effluent and its capability to affect the concentrations in time of the receiving water body. In this study, three sampling campaigns were carried out at two different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Varese area (Northern Italy) with the aim of monitoring the occurrence of some pharmaceuticals to evaluate their removal efficiency. The detected pharmaceuticals were: Ofloxacin, Ibuprofen, Atenolol, Bezafibrate, Carbamazepine, Salbutamol, Cyclophosphamide and Hydrochlorothiazide. The results obtained, together with the analysis of the characteristics of the chemicals and of the two WWTPs, allowed evaluating the factors affecting the spatial and temporal concentration variability in effluent waters and the potential influence of this variability in driving the exposure of the aquatic ecosystems in the receiving water body.

Aspects Regarding the Pharmaceutical Waste Management in Romania

“…However, after 4 years of regulation and numerous media campaigns, aimed at raising the awareness among the population about the effects of drug pollution, the collection is still difficult and there are still pharmacies that refuse to take medicines from the population under different pretexts. The latest studies carried out in our country have indicated the presence of a large number of pharmaceutical compounds in the Danube waters [47], important rivers [15], soil [48], and plants [49][50][51][52]. This context calls for more in-depth studies on issues related to the management of pharmaceutical waste in Romania.…”

New Electrochemical Detection Strategies for Iodinated Compounds

“…From the results showed above is deducted that by the two types of electrochemical methods using screenprinted carbon electrodes (DPV and CV) and Jenco microelectrodes (for iodide detection), iodide can be easily determined qualitatively and quantitatively. Both methods are safe and easy to use, and can be thought of as a portable system with a wide range of applicability [34][35][36][37][38][39][40] (screen electrodes are already used to detect toxic and bioactive compounds in the life sciences), alongside other validated methods for the same purpose [41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Redox microelectrodes correlate in a good manner the redox status of the solution with KI concentration.…”

Reducing the Risk in Controlled Drug Release by Using Tannic Acid in Liposomal Formulations

“…The cubic F(y) admits the real roots: (6) where ε 1 , ε 2 , ε 3 are the cubic roots of the unit [28][29][30]: (7) if and only if the discriminator of the cubic F(y) is negative: (8) The quantities h and h are the roots of the hessian cubic F(y): (9) and k is a unimodular factor in the form k=e 1φ…”

“…consequence, in the first part of the release process, the drug concentrations can reach or exceed the toxic level, which is pharmacologically dangerous [9,10]. This is why the burst effect is regarded in general as an event to be avoided.…”