How do wastewater treatment plants remove pharmaceuticals?
New research shows that wastewater treatment plants that employ a combination of purifying techniques followed by reverse osmosis – a process by which water is forced through a barrier that only water can pass – do a good job of removing chemicals that may elicit health effects.
Do pharmaceuticals cause eutrophication?
More broadly, if releases of pharmaceuticals into coastal ecosystems are high enough to induce biological impacts, they may act as additional stressors on marine ecosystems already impacted by climate change, eutrophication and over-fishing [13].
How does pharmaceuticals affect the environment?
“This practice has a detrimental impact on vulnerable populations living near manufacturing facilities and wastewater treatment plants in these countries.” The pollution of pharma products into the environment also adversely affects animals, particularly fish living in contaminated water.
What causes pharmaceutical pollution?
"Pharmaceutical pollution is now detected in waters throughout the world," said a scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. "Causes include aging infrastructure, sewage overflows and agricultural runoff.
How does pharmaceutical waste get into water?
Pharmaceuticals get into the water supply via human excretion and by drugs being flushed down the toilet. You might think wastewater treatment plants would take care of the situation, but pharmaceuticals pass through water treatment.
How do pharmaceuticals affect water quality?
Summary: When people take medications, these drugs and their metabolites can be excreted and make their way to wastewater treatment plants. From there, the compounds can end up in waterways. Wastewater from pharmaceutical companies could start off with even larger amounts of these substances.
Why is pharmaceutical waste bad for the environment?
Pharmaceuticals enter the environmental mainly as a result of patient use, where they can pass through our bodies and into waterways. Drug manufacture and the improper disposal of unused medicines also add to the trace levels of pharmaceuticals in rivers, lakes, soils, and, sometimes, drinking water.
What waste is generated by pharmaceutical industry?
Generally Pharmaceutical waste may include: • Expired drugs • Patients' discarded personal medications; • Waste materials containing excess drugs (syringes, IV bags, tubing, vials, etc.); • Waste materials containing chemotherapy drug residues; • Open containers of drugs that cannot be used; • Containers that held ...
How polluting is the pharmaceutical industry?
Over 100,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical products are consumed globally every year (24% in Europe). During their manufacture, use and disposal, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) as well as other chemical ingredients are released into the environment.
What are pharmaceutical wastes?
“Pharmaceutical waste” (aka PPCPs), which includes used and unused expired prescription pharmaceuticals, home-use personal care products, and over-the-counter medications, have emerged since the development of standard medical waste regulations as being a new major public and environmental health concern.
What are CWs used for?
CWs have been investigated for the treatment of wastewater for traditional parameters as well as the removal of PhCs. The large number of published studies provided the foundation of this comprehensive assessment, which is based on critical review of the literature and statistical analysis of data gathered from peer-reviewed studies. Thus, a novel database was compiled in this study, which included influent and effluent concentrations, removal efficiency, and removal rate of PhCs from the information of 260 CWs that were reported in 66 peer-reviewed journal publications with case studies from 19 countries for the removal of 148 PhCs grouped into 33 categories according to their therapeutic classes and 25 TPs. Additionally, the environmental risk posed by a number of PhCs and the contribution of CWs to their risk reduction was evaluated. Finally, the role of physicochemical properties of PhCs was examined, and the available evidence from experimental studies on the major removal mechanisms was comprehensively and critically assessed and summarized. The following specific conclusions were inferred from this research.
How many articles were collected in the snowball sampling method?
The snowball sampling method yielded over 100 journal articles, which were further screened and used for the purpose of this research. The screening was carried out to check the quality of published data. Only peer-reviewed journal papers were selected for this research, which helped to ensure the reliability of given data. The selected studies have used generally accepted and reliable analytical methods such as solid phase extraction-gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-GC-MS/MS); SPE- (ultra) high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (SPE- (U)HPLC-DAD); liquid-liquid phase extraction-gas chromatography-micro electron capture detector (LLPE-GC-μECD); and SPE-rapid resolution liquid chromatography-MS/MS (SPE-RRLC-MS/MS). The samples were analyzed soon after collection, as the storage time was less than one or two days in most cases. The selected studies contained the required information on most of the key parameters such as concentration of PhCs in influent and effluent waters, removal efficiency, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), hydraulic loading rate (HLR), and hydraulic retention time (HRT).
How do pharmaceuticals affect aquatic ecosystems?
The presence of pharmaceutical compounds in aquatic ecosystems may affect both biota and human health because these micropollutants are capable of altering the metabolism and reproduction capacity of the live organisms of the aquatic ecosystems. The main route of entry of these pollutants into the aquatic environment is through Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) effluents. Compounds such as diclofenac (DCF) and carbamazepine (CBZ) persist, undergoing little or no degradation during treatment. Coupled systems combining biological treatments and Advanced Oxidation Technologies (AOTs) represent an alternative to reduce the risk of the presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment by achieving high removal efficiency at a low cost. This research evaluated the performance of a coupled system integrated by Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland (CW HSSF) and Solar Photo-Fenton at laboratory scale under America tropical conditions for the removal of DCF and CBZ from domestic wastewater at 15 μg L⁻¹, on average. Three Fe2 +/H2O2 ratios (0.1, 0.3, and 0.8) were tested. Concentrations of DCF, CBZ, organic matter (DOC), Total Nitrogen (TN), and in situ variables were measured throughout the experiment. Removal efficiencies up to 92% and 86% were achieved for DCF and CBZ, respectively, using the Fe²⁺/H2O2 ratio of 0.1. There were no significant differences between the Fe²⁺/H2O2 ratios used (p < .05), but significantly greater efficiencies were achieved when CW was coupled with solar Photo-Fenton (40% only CW and 92% coupled system). Additionally, the coupled system showed a removal efficiency of organic matter (DOC) and total nitrogen (TN) greater than 61%. The concentration of DOC and TN, pH, solar UV radiation, and peroxide consumption had no significant effect on the removal efficiency of DCF and CBZ.
What are emerging pollutants?
One form of emerging pollutants, pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), are becoming a serious problem in the discharge of domestic wastewater. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine their occurrence in wastewater and surface waters, and to evaluate the efficiency of subsurface horizontal flow constructed wetlands (planted in polyculture and unplanted), in removing two pharmaceuticals: carbamazepine (Cbz) and sildenafil (Sil); and a personal care product: methylparaben (Mp), present in domestic wastewater. The mixed PPCPs were added to wetlands, at nominal concentrations of 200 μg / L for each compound. The working flow of the reactors was 15 mL / min and the hydraulic retention time was three days. The physicochemical parameters evaluated were: organic load, dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, redox potential, dissolved solids, pH and PPCPs concentration. The presence of the three compounds became evident in all sampled sites, with concentrations of up to 10.66 μg / L, 7.24 μg / L and 2.64 μg / L for Cbz, Mp and Sil, respectively. In planted wetlands, removal efficiencies of up to 97% were achieved for Sil, while in the unplanted these were 30% lower. Removal efficiencies greater than 97% were achieved for Mp, however, for Cbz they were less than 10%, evaluated in both treatments. The average removal efficiency for organic load was 95%. It was determined that constructed wetlands can efficiently remove simple molecular structure compounds such as Mp, and complex structures such as Sil. However, Cbz remained as a recalcitrant contaminant.
What is the difference between sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim?
Sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim are two human-use antibacterial compounds that are often prescribed together to treat various bacterial infections. Sulfamethoxazole belongs to the sulfonamide class of antibacterial compounds, while trimethoprim does not belong to any specific class. Antibiotics/antibacterials that are used by humans are not entirely metabolized by the digestive system and pass into the sanitary sewer system. At wastewater treatment plants, some fraction of the drugs entering the plants are degraded, but a portion may pass through, either sorbed to the waste solids or dissolved in the liquid effluent ( Renew and Huang, 2004, Brown et al., 2006, Göbel et al., 2007, Batt et al., 2007 ). The discharge of effluent or the application of solids to the land surface leads to the contamination of environmental systems with the residual pharmaceuticals ( Kolpin et al., 2002, Kinney et al., 2008, Barber et al., 2009 ). Concerns about sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim are related to the potential for resistance to be developed to this drug combination because of its widespread use. Since these compounds first began to be used in combination in 1968, the frequency of bacterial isolates showing resistance to the combination has gradually increased ( Huovinen et al., 1995 ). Besides resistance developed through normal use, concerns exist about resistance developing due to bacteria being exposed to the drugs at low concentrations in the environment ( Daughton and Ternes, 1999 ).
Is trimethoprim a direct photolysis?
Trimethoprim was also found to be susceptible to indirect photolysis in wastewater effluents, with hydroxyl radical and triplet excited effluent organic matter being the responsible species. Deoxygenation of solutions led to more rapid direct photolysis of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, indicating that direct photolysis proceeds ...