Occurrence of pharmaceutical active compounds in sewage sludge from two urban wastewater treatment plants and their potential behaviour in agricultural soils

Abstract

Sewage sludge/biosolids are widely used in intensive farming to maintain fertility and enhance crop yields. Therefore, characterization of these matrices is necessary to ensure their safe use, especially regarding the...

Characterization of Five Portuguese Wastewater Treatment Plants: Removal Efficiency of Pharmaceutical Active Compounds through Conventional Treatment Processes and Environmental Risk

“…The concentration of the two most representative NSAIDs, IBUP and NPX, was about one-tenth and one-fifth of the median concentration of acetaminophen and caffeine concentrations. Except for acetaminophen, the obtained concentrations of these five PhACs were similar to those found in recent studies in other two Portuguese WWTP, Beirolas WWTP and Faro WWTP [25]. The median concentrations of acetaminophen were much higher than those found in other WWTP influents in Portugal [23,[34][35][36] and in Europe [8].…”

“…For analysis, the LC-MS/MS method that was used had already been validated for PhACs determination in wastewaters, clams, and sludge samples [23][24][25]. To ensure maximum sensitivity, two chromatographic methods were used.…”

Environmental Forensic

“…In fact conventional WWTPs are not designed to remove these emerging contaminants that can be present in wastewater effluents (for example the antibiotics range from ng/L to μg/L) and accumulate in sewage sludge and biosolids (Silva et al, 2021;Grenni, 2022).…”

Addressing the water-energy nexus: A focus on the barriers and potentials of harnessing wastewater treatment processes for biogas production in Sub Saharan Africa

“…Previously, the most frequently mentioned POPs were antibiotics and the resulting global development of antibiotic resistance in animals and humans ( Founou et al., 2016 ). However, Silva et al. (2021) demonstrate that ibuprofen and sulfamethoxazole contained in sewage sludge can accumulate in agricultural plant tissues when employed as a fertilizer, posing a new concern to human and animal consumption.…”