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Cytostatic agents are applied in cancer therapy and subsequently excreted into hospital wastewater. As these substances are known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction, they should be removed from wastewater at their source of origin. In this study the fate and effects of the cancerostatic platinum compounds (CPC) cisplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and the anthracyclines doxorubicin, daunorubicin and epirubicin were investigated in hospital wastewater. Wastewater from the in-patient treatment ward of a hospital in Vienna was collected and monitored for the occurrence of the selected drugs. A calculation model was established to spot the correlation between administered dosage and measured concentrations. To investigate the fate of the selected substances during wastewater treatment, the oncologic wastewater was treated in a pilot membrane bioreactor system (MBR) and in downstream advanced wastewater treatment processes (adsorption to activated carbon and UV-treatment). Genotoxic effects of the oncologic wastewater were assessed before and after wastewater treatment followed by a risk assessment. Monitoring concentrations of the selected cytostatics in the oncologic wastewater were in line with calculated concentrations. Due to different mechanisms (adsorption, biodegradation) in the MBR-system 5 - FU and the anthracyclines were removed < LOD, whereas CPC were removed by 60%. In parallel, genotoxic effects could be reduced significantly by the MBR-system. The risk for humans, the aquatic and terrestrial environment by hospital wastewater containing cytostatic drugs was classified as small in a preliminary risk assessment.

In order to further improve the sensitivity of chemical IR sensors, research into a significant change in the signal generation mechanism was carried out. This effort was realized by generating the surface-enhanced IR absorption and Raman-scattering effect at silver- and gold-island-covered Ge- and ZnSe ATR surfaces for surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) and Ag-layer-covered brass plates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), respectively, and linking the optimized tools to the IR sensor concept. By careful optimization of the generation of silver-island and gold-island films on Ge reflection elements, intensity gains by a factor of 50 were achieved. Chemical interactions between the silver-island layer and the various analytes investigated up to now (p-nitro benzoic acid, as a model compound, and selected aromatic and chlorinated pesticides) are likely, as indicated by significant IR spectral changes; the substances are, however, bound to the surfaces in a reversible manner. This property of the novel SEIRA sensor can be favorably exploited in flow-through systems. In a similar way, by a specially optimized treatment of anodically oxidized brass plates in a silver bath, repeatably usable SERS targets for the trace analysis of pesticide mixtures in aqueous systems could be developed. A signal enhancement factor of 1.4 million was obtained with pyridine as the standard sample. The data shown in this work suggest that both SEIRA and SERS can be coupled to a flow injection system in a reversible way for the molecular-specific trace analysis of organic compounds in aqueous solutions.