Removal of pharmaceuticals during wastewater treatment and environmental risk assessment using hazard indexes

Gros, Meritxell; Petrović, Mira; Ginebreda, Antoni; Barceló, Damià

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2009.09.002

Cited by 769 publications

(328 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…For that hazard quotients (HQ), which establish the ratio between Predicted Environmental Concentration (PEC) and Predicted No-Effect Concentration (PNEC), could be a useful tool, as was proved by some authors Gros et al, 2010;Verlicchi et al, 2012a). However, the replacement of PEC for Measured Environmental Concentration (MEC) allows evaluating risks posed by pharmaceuticals in a more realistic scenario.…”

Section: Environmental Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of hospital effluents to the load of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters: Identification of ecologically relevant pharmaceuticals

Santos

Gros²,

Rodríguez-Mozaz³

et al. 2013

Science of The Total Environment

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507

204

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The impact of effluent wastewaters from four different hospitals: a university (1456 beds), a general (350 beds), a pediatric (110 beds) and a maternity hospital (96 beds), which are conveyed to the same wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), was evaluated in the receiving urban wastewaters. The occurrence of 78 pharma-ceuticals belonging to several therapeutic classes was assessed in hospital effluents and WWTP wastewaters (influent and effluent) as well as the contribution of each hospital in WWTP influent in terms of pharmaceu-tical load. Results indicate that pharmaceuticals are widespread pollutants in both hospital and urban waste-waters. The contribution of hospitals to the input of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters widely varies, according to their dimension. The estimated total mass loadings were 306 g d − 1 for the university hospital, 155 g d − 1 for the general one, 14 g d −1 for the pediatric hospital and 1.5 g d − 1 for the maternity hospital, showing that the biggest hospitals have a greater contribution to the total mass load of pharmaceuticals. Fur-thermore, analysis of individual contributions of each therapeutic group showed that NSAIDs, analgesics and antibiotics are among the groups with the highest inputs. Removal efficiency can go from over 90% for pharmaceuticals like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to not removal for β-blockers and salbutamol. Total mass load of pharmaceuticals into receiving surface waters was estimated between 5 and 14 g/d/1000 inhabitants. Finally, the environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals detected in hospital and WWTP effluents was assessed by means of hazard quotients toward different trophic levels (algae, daphnids and fish). Several pharmaceuticals present in the different matrices were identified as potentially hazardous to aquatic organ-isms, showing that especial attention should be paid to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfameth-oxazole, azithromycin and clarithromycin, since their hazard quotients in WWTP effluent revealed that they could pose an ecotoxicological risk to algae.

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Section: Environmental Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of hospital effluents to the load of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters: Identification of ecologically relevant pharmaceuticals

Santos

Gros²,

Rodríguez-Mozaz³

et al. 2013

Science of The Total Environment

Self Cite

507

204

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“…Studies show that pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are present in aquatic environments in many parts of the world including Germany, Brazil, Canada, Holland, England, Italy, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom (Bila, Dezotti, 2003;Ikehata et al, 2006;Tambosi, 2008), Spain (Gros et al, 2010), France, Switzerland, Greece (Melo et al, 2009), Japan (Gosh et al, 2009), Austria (Regitano, Leal, 2010), and China (Guinea et al, 2009a).…”

Section: Environmental Occurrencementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental contamination by fluoroquinolones

Frade

Dias

Teixeira

et al. 2014

Braz. J. Pharm. Sci.

134

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Over the past few decades, a high number of pharmaceuticals have been detected in surface, ground and drinking waters. This contamination comes from domestic sewage, livestock, hospitals and chemicalpharmaceutical industries. Typical examples of these pollutants are the fluoroquinolones -powerful antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine. The presence of fluoroquinolones in the environment can pose a serious threat to the ecosystem and to human health due to their high consumption globally: in 1998, around 120 tons were produced. Even at low environmental concentrations, antibiotics stimulate bacterial resistance. The consequences of the presence of fluoroquinolones in the environment are not fully understood, but are known to be toxic to plants and aquatic organisms. Approximately 85% of the fluoroquinolones present in influents can be removed by conventional wastewater treatment plants, but the removed fraction is frequently accumulated in the sludge, which is sometimes used as fertilizer, representing an additional input route into the environment. The removal of fluoroquinolones by biological treatment is ineffective, and it is believed that only advanced oxidation technologies are able to destroy these emerging pollutants.Uniterms: Fluoroquinolones/waste/environmental impact. Fluoroquinolones/waste/environmental contamination. Environmental contamination. Advanced oxidation processes/wastewater treatment.Nas últimas décadas, um grande número de fármacos tem sido identificado em águas superficiais, subterrâneas e potáveis. Tal contaminação advém do esgoto doméstico, hospitais, criação de animais e das indústrias químico-farmacêuticas. Exemplos típicos desses poluentes são as fluoroquinolonaspotentes antibióticos empregados na medicina humana e veterinária. A presença de fluoroquinolonas no meio ambiente pode representar uma séria ameaça para o ecossistema e para a saúde humana devido ao alto consumo mundial: em 1998 foram produzidas, aproximadamente, 120 toneladas. Mesmo em baixas concentrações, antibióticos podem estimular a resistência bacteriana. As consequências da presença de fluoroquinolonas no ambiente não são completamente compreendidas, mas sabe-se que são tóxicas para plantas e organismos aquáticos. Aproximadamente 85% das fluoroquinolonas presentes em efluentes podem ser removidos em estações de tratamento de efluentes convencionais, porém a fração removida é frequentemente acumulada no lodo, muitas vezes usado como fertilizante, o que representa uma rota adicional de entrada desses compostos no ambiente. A remoção de fluoroquinolonas por meio de tratamento biológico não é eficiente, e acredita-se que somente as tecnologias de oxidação avançada sejam capazes de degradar esses poluentes emergentes.Uniterms: Fluorquinolonas/resíduos/impacto ambiental. Fluorquinolonas/resíduos/contaminação ambiental. Contaminação ambiental. Processos oxidativos avançados/tratamento de águas residuais.

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“…The use of UHPLC in combination with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) using triple quadrupole (QqQ) [2,8,10,11,[19][20][21][22] or ion trap (IT) analyzers [23][24][25][26][27], has made possible the development of faster and more sensitive methods. Moreover, the fact of working with short dwell times in new instruments, allows increasing the number of selected reaction monitoring (SRM) transitions acquired simultaneously per compound making possible not only quantification but also a reliable identification.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast determination of 40 drugs in water using large volume direct injection liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Boix

Ibáñez

Sancho

et al. 2015

Talanta

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This work describes a rapid analytical method based on direct sample injection of water samples for the simultaneous identification/quantification of 40 emerging compounds, including pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse. The water samples were analyzed by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (UHPLC-MS/MS QqQ). Taking profit of the increasing sensitivity of nowadays's tandem mass spectrometers, direct sample injection of large volumes has been an attractive alternative to pre-concentration steps. In this work, the developed methodology has been validated at three concentration levels (10, 100 and 1000 ng/L) in 10 different water samples of different types (5 effluent wastewaters and 5 surface waters). The majority of compounds could be satisfactory validated at these concentrations, showing good recoveries and precision. With only few exceptions, the limits of quantification (LOQs), estimated from the sample chromatogram at lowest spiked level tested, were below 3 ng/L. The method was applied to the analysis of 10 effluent wastewaters and 10 surface water samples. Venlafaxine was the compound most frequently detected (80%) in surface water, followed by acetaminophen (70%). Regarding effluent wastewater, valsartan and 4-acetyl aminoantipyrine were detected in 9 out of 10 samples analyzed. These two compounds together with 4-formyl aminoantipyrine and naproxen showed the highest concentrations (>2000 ng/L). In these cases, a dilution step was required for a correct quantification. As an additional evaluation of the method performance, the same water samples were analyzed in other laboratory by a second analytical methodology, based on on-line solid-phase-extraction coupled to LC-MS/MS (QqQ). KeywordsDirect injection, illicit drugs of abuse, pharmaceuticals, effluent wastewater, surface water, liquid chromatography, triple quadrupole mass spectrometry.

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Removal of pharmaceuticals during wastewater treatment and environmental risk assessment using hazard indexes

Cited by 769 publications

References 24 publications

Contribution of hospital effluents to the load of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters: Identification of ecologically relevant pharmaceuticals

Contribution of hospital effluents to the load of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters: Identification of ecologically relevant pharmaceuticals

Environmental contamination by fluoroquinolones

Fast determination of 40 drugs in water using large volume direct injection liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

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