Urban wastewater treatment plants as hotspots for the release of antibiotics in the environment: A review

Abstract

Urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) are among the main sources of antibiotics' release into various compartments of the environment worldwide. The aim of the present paper is to critically review the fate and removal of various antibiotics in wastewater treatment, focusing on different processes (i.e. biological processes, advanced treatment technologies and disinfection) in view of the current concerns related to the induction of toxic effects in aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and the occurrence of antibiotics that may promote the selection of antibiotic resistance genes and bacteria, as reported in the literature. Where available, estimations of the removal of antibiotics are provided along with the main treatment steps. The removal efficiency during wastewater treatment processes varies and is mainly dependent on a combination of antibiotics' physicochemical properties and the operating conditions of the treatment systems. As a result, the application of alternative techniques including membrane processes, activated carbon adsorption, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), and combinations of them, which may lead to higher removals, may be necessary before the final disposal of the effluents or their reuse for irrigation or groundwater recharge.

Antibiotic resistance in urban aquatic environments: can it be controlled?

“…These substances, mainly of anthropogenic origin, are mixed with environmental microbiota, suffering, during wastewater treatment, multiple chemical and biological transformations, largely still un-known (Zhang et al 2012;Michael et al 2013;Rizzo et al 2013b). In general, the biological wastewater treatment processes, widely used in urban wastewater treatment plants, offer ideal conditions for bacterial proliferation (Zhang et al 2012).…”

“…The increased fitness may be due to the fact that it confers an advantage to the host and/or because it is associated with enhanced occurrence of horizontal gene transfer (Fondi and Fani 2010). In this aspect, it is important to mention the well-documented occurrence of antibiotic residues in wastewater (Segura et al 2009(Segura et al , 2015Michael et al 2013). sustaining the hypothesis that, during wastewater treatment, the presence of active antibiotic molecules may impose selective pressure on ARB.…”

“…A major driver for the dissemination of antibiotic resistance is supposed to be the use of antibiotics, which, between the years of 2000 and 2010, increased in 36 %, with major contributions from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (Van Boeckel et al 2014). An impor-tant fraction of these antibiotics is discharged in sewage, together with bacteria of human and animal origin (Michael et al 2013;Rizzo et al 2013b). For its part, water is one of the most important habitats and routes of propagation of bacteria, playing a major role in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance between the environment and humans and other animals (Vaz-Moreira et al 2014).…”

Efficient degradation of sulfamethoxazole by the Fe(II)/HSO5− process enhanced by hydroxylamine: Efficiency and mechanism

“…Conventional treatment processes exhibit poor removal for antibiotics from pharmaceutical wastewater (Michael et al, 2013). Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based on hydroxyl radical (HO • ) oxidation, such as photolysis (Ryan et al, 2011), electrochemical oxidation (De Amorim et al, 2013), and catalytic ozonation (Gonçalves et al, 2012) have indicated a certain success in the degradation of antibiotics.…”

Antibiotics and sweeteners in the aquatic environment: biodegradability, formation of phototransformation products, and in vitro toxicity

“…In addition, this wide-ranging use led to the presence of antibiotics as micropollutants in the aquatic environment (Michael et al 2013). For example, the widely prescribed group of antibacterial agents, the fluoroquinolones, have been found in aquatic environments in various parts of the world (Table 1, Sukul and Spiteller 2007).…”