Occurrence and behavior of pharmaceuticals, steroid hormones, and endocrine-disrupting personal care products in wastewater and the recipient river water of the Pearl River Delta, South China

Abstract

The occurrence and behavior of b-blockers, antiepileptic drug carbamazepine and its metabolites, X-ray contrast agent iopromide, natural and synthetic hormones, and several groups of hormone-like personal care products (PCPs), including antiseptics (triclocarban, triclosan, and 2-phenylphenol), parabens and bisphenol A, were investigated in municipal wastewater, sewage sludge, and urban river water of the Pearl River Delta, South China. The pharmaceuticals, natural hormones and PCPs were ubiquitously detected in the raw wastewater from a sewage treatment plant (STP). Only triclocarban and triclosan were detected at significant amounts in the dewatered sludge. Iopromide and the PCPs were greatly removed/transformed from the aqueous phase of the wastewater. The b-blockers were only moderately removed/transformed. Carbamazepine passed through the STP almost unchanged. Biodegradation was the dominant process for elimination/transformation of the pharmaceuticals, hormones, and most PCPs in the STP. However, sorption also played an important role in the fate of triclocarban with nearly 50% of the mass load entering the STP ended up and persisted in the dewatered sludge. The pharmaceuticals, estrone, and PCPs were also widely detected in the Pearl River at Guangzhou. Bisphenol A had the highest concentration. The pharmaceutical concentrations in the Pearl River were higher in March than in May, most likely due to less dilution by lower precipitation. The omnipresence and high levels of the pharmaceuticals and PCPs in the Pearl River may be associated with direct discharge of untreated wastewater and pose potential risks to the ecological system.

Occurrence, fate and risk assessment of parabens and their chlorinated derivatives in an advanced wastewater treatment plant

“…3, the mass change percentages of total parabens ( PBs) were 26%, 6%, −6%, and −5% in anaerobic tank, anoxic tank, oxic tank and secondary clarifier, respectively. The high mass change in the anaerobic tank suggested that parabens were mainly biodegraded in this unit, which is in accordance with previous report that levels of the parabens decreased significantly during anaerobic processes, the first treatment unit in a sewage treatment plant [31]. However, several studies have reported that these compounds are readily biodegradable under aerobic conditions, while only partially degraded under anaerobic conditions [37,38].…”

“…Limited information is available regarding the presence of parabens in the tertiary effluents. In the present study, the concentrations of parabens were similar to or lower than those reported in the tertiary effluents treated with chlorine in China (MeP: 5.1 ng/L; EtP: 1.0 ng/L; PrP: 7.2 ng/L; BuP: 0.3 ng/L) [31], and with coagulation flocculation and filtration in Spain (MeP: 11 ng/L; EtP < 1.5 ng/L; PrP < 0.5 ng/L; BuP < 0.5 ng/L) [32].…”

Profile and behavior of antiviral drugs in aquatic environments of the Pearl River Delta, China

“…1). Detailed description of the STP was provided previously (Yu et al, 2011). Briefly, it has three parallel treatment lines with a total capacity of 550 000 m 3 d −1 , serving a population of about 1.5 million.…”

Occurrence and ecological potential of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in groundwater and reservoirs in the vicinity of municipal landfills in China

“…Sample treatment and chemical analysis were performed by employing protocols described previously Tang et al, 2009;Yu et al, 2011). In short, groundwater and reservoir water samples (500 mL each) were spiked with isotope-labeled internal standards and concentrated by solid phase extraction (SPE) on HLB cartridges (200 mg, Waters, Massachusetts, USA) at pH 4.2, pH 4.0, and pH 7.0 for the anti-bacterials, the acid pharmaceuticals and azole antifungals, and the endocrine disruption personal care products (PCPs), respectively.…”

“…Trace amounts of clotrimazole and miconazole were detected in the procedural blanks and were appropriately subtracted from the reported concentrations of the samples. Detailed information about the QA/QC procedure was provided elsewhere (Huang et al, 2010;Tang et al, 2009;Yu et al, 2011).…”