LDC, TRA, VEN, ODT, and ODV are only partially removed from sewage water by WWTPs and thus are continuously discharged in respective recipient rivers. A further transformation of TRA and VEN into the known metabolites during treatment in the WWTPs is not observed.

The presence of the anesthetic lidocaine (LDC), the analgesic tramadol (TRA), the antidepressant venlafaxine (VEN) and the metabolites O-desmethyltramadol (ODT) and O-desmethylvenlafaxine (ODV) was investigated in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents, in surface waters and in groundwater. The analytes were detected in all effluent samples and in only 64% of the surface water samples. The mean concentrations of the analytes in effluent samples from WWTPs with wastewater from only households and hospitals were 107 (LDC), 757 (TRA), 122 (ODT), 160 (VEN) and 637 ng L(-1) (ODV), while the mean concentrations in effluents from WWTPs treating additionally wastewater from pharmaceutical industries as indirect dischargers were for some pharmaceuticals clearly higher. WWTP effluents were identified as important sources of the analyzed pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in surface waters. The concentrations of the compounds found in surface waters ranged from

No abstract

Abstract:The occurrence and removal efficiencies of the pharmaceuticals lidocaine (LDC), tramadol (TRA) and venlafaxine (VEN), and their major active metabolites monoethylglycinexylidide (MEGX), O-desmethyltramadol (ODT) and O-desmethylvenlafaxine (ODV) were studied at four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) equipped with activated sludge treatment technologies. In parallel to activated sludge treatment, the removal efficiency of the compounds in pilot-and full-scale projects installed at the WWTPs was investigated. Within these projects two different treatment methods were tested: adsorption onto powdered/granulated activated carbon (PAC/GAC) and ozonation. The metabolite MEGX was not detected in any sample. The concentrations of the target analytes in wastewater effluents resulting from activated sludge treatment ranged from 55 to 183 (LDC), 88 to 416 (TRA), 50 to 245 (ODT), 22 to 176 (VEN) and 77 to 520 ng L −1 (ODV). In the pilot project with subsequent treatment with PAC/GAC, the mean concentrations of the analytes were between