Hospital Effluent as a New Source of Anthropogenic Lanthanum in the Environment
Zakia Aktar,
Kazuhiro Toyoda
Abstract:Excess gadolinium (Gd) in the environment, originating from Gd-chelating contrast agents present in hospital wastewater, has been extensively studied as a micropollutant. However, the source of excessive lanthanum (La) levels in the environment remains unclear. In this study, we analyzed rare earth elements (REEs) in treated water from 12 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and sewage sludge/incinerated ash from two sludge treatment centers in Sapporo, Japan, during 2019−2020. We found that the annual discharg… Show more
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