Occurrence of Selected Pharmaceuticals and Caffeine in Sewage Treatment Plants and Receiving Rivers in Beijing, China

Abstract

The occurrence of nine different types of pharmaceuticals and caffeine were analyzed in various units of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their receiving rivers in Beijing, China. Analyte concentrations were determined using ultra performance liquid chromatograph‐tandem quadruple mass spectrometers (UPLC‐MS/MS) and multiple‐reaction monitoring. The studied pharmaceuticals and caffeine were found in all the WWTPs and receiving rivers. Their concentrations in the WWTP influents varied from 38 ng/L of sulpiride to 89.5 µg/L of caffeine, and those in the effluents ranged from 27 ng/L of sulpiride to 2.7 µg/L of erythromycin. Typically, the biological treatment appeared more effective in the removal of pharmaceuticals and caffeine than primary treatment in a WWTP. For an individual compound, the overall removal efficiency varied from one WWTP to the next. Mean values ranged from no removal of carbamazepine to 99.8% removal of caffeine. Most of the compounds in the receiving rivers were present at similar or higher concentrations compared to those in the WWTP effluents. The data set for this study does not include variations in concentrations along receiving waters because there were other point and nonpoint sources discharging to these rivers. The preliminary aquatic environmental risk assessment showed that carbamazepine, erythromycin, and trimethoprim is a potential chronic environmental risk in water bodies in Beijing, China, and is worth further investigation.

Elimination of polar micropollutants and anthropogenic markers by wastewater treatment in Beijing, China

“…Carbamazepine epoxide concentrations were below the LOQ (3 ng L À1 ) in all samples. The elimination of both CBMZDI and carbamazepine was limited (À13% to 45%) in the WWTPs, as found in other studies, due to the chemical inertness and weak adsorption of these compounds on sludge (Lin et al, 2009;Zhou et al, 2010;Sui et al, 2011;Bueno et al, 2012), as well as by the reformation from the conjugated forms by microbial activity during treatment (Miao et al, 2005).…”

“…3). Elimination of some pharmaceuticals, such as beta blockers and psycho-active drugs, during wastewater treatment could be predicted with a model using the transformation constants (Wick et al, 2009), but no general trend for the elimination of pharmaceuticals has been reported in the literature (Gulkowska et al, 2008;Zhou et al, 2010;Gao et al, 2012b;Verlicchi et al, 2012).…”

“…Several studies have focused on the occurrence and elimination efficiency of pharmaceuticals, caffeine, and DEET in the WWTPs of Beijing (Sui et al, 2010(Sui et al, , 2011Zhou et al, 2010;Li et al, 2013). The pharmaceuticals included antibiotics, lipid regulators, beta-blockers, and antiphlogistics and varied in concentration from several ng L À1 to thousands of ng L À1 in the influents and from below detection to hundreds of ng L À1 in the effluents.…”

Recalcitrant pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment: a comparative screening study of their occurrence, formation of phototransformation products and their in vitro toxicity

“…1). [41] 11 surface waters, Sweden [42] cimetidine 10 9.1 217 surface waters, Great Britain [43] 1338 surface waters, South Korea [44] 580 surface waters, USA [45] fluconazole 2 5.0 111 surface waters, South Korea [46] 140 STP effluents, Sweden [47] 9 surface waters, Switzerland [48] 369 STP effluents, China [40] hydrochlorothiazide 0.5 153.8 256 surface waters, Italy [49,50] 1949 STP effluents, Spain [24] lisinopril 0.4 22.5 bd surface waters, Spain [24] phenytoin 7.5 28.2 100 STP effluents, Germany [51] 19 drinking waters, USA [52,53] primidone 7.5 54.8 690 ground waters, Germany [1] 89 surface waters, Germany [54] 51 drinking waters, Switzerland [55] 28 surface waters, USA [56] ranitidine 4.5 301.6 39 surface waters, Italy [49,50,57] 70 surface waters, Great Britain [43] 100 surface waters, Sweden [58] 823 STP effluents, China [40] 10 surface waters, USA [45] sotalol 2.4 27.2 1000 surface waters, Germany [2] 100 ground waters, Germany [2] 86 surface waters, Finland [25] 619 surface waters, Taiwan [26] sulpiride 8 60.1 27 STP effluents, China [59] 100 STP influents, Japan [60] tramadol 2 379.6 87 ground waters, Germany [54] 5970 surface waters, Great Britain [43] 1840 surface waters, Sweden [58] valsartane 1.6 232.9 144 surface waters, Great Britain [43] Formation of phototransformation products (PTP) With respect to the HPLC-UV-MS analysis, deviations of all quality controls were within the limits o...…”

Removal of typical pharmaceutically active compounds in sewage sludge using mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion processes

“…They usually reach sewage treatment plants (STPs) in metabolized and/ or unmetabolized forms after human consumption. STPs are frequently considered as the main points of discharge of PhACs into the environment, and therefore, PhACs in the effluent sewage have been extensively investigated and detected (Aguayo et al 2010;Jelic et al 2011;Yang et al 2011;Zhou et al 2010). In addition, PhACs can be absorbed onto bacterial lipid structure and fat fraction of the sludge through hydrophobic interactions (e.g., aliphatic and aromatic groups) (Radjenovic et al 2009); therefore, the concerns and researches on their concentrations, behavior, and fate in sewage sludge are growing.…”