Concentration of Ciprofloxacin in Brazilian Hospital Effluent and Preliminary Risk Assessment: A Case Study

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the occurrence of the fluoroquinolone antimicrobial agent ciprofloxacin (CIP) in the effluent of the Hospital of the Federal University of Santa Maria (HUSM). Measured environmental concentrations (MECs) of CIP in the hospital wastewater, both before (P1) and after (P2) cesspit/filter system treatment (CFTS), were determined by means of solid phase extraction and reversed-phase liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (LC-FLD) and reversed-phase liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (LC-MS/MS). The MECs (n = 7 daily composed samples) were 19 to 155 lg L -1 (average: 54 l 21 lg L -1) and 32 to 99 lg L -1 (average: 65 l 45 lg L -1 ) in P1 and P2, respectively. No relevant removal was observed from P1 to P2. In a worst case scenario, the final effluent was regarded as MECs of surface water. These MECs were generally 5 to 20,000-fold higher than what was previously known. If the present data is drawn on to form a model of the situation in developing countries, the picture provides a first rough indication that the environmental risk associated with the use and emission of pharmaceuticals into the environment in developing countries might be higher than in developed countries.

Treatment of Antibiotics in Wastewater Using Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs)

“…The antibiotic groups that have been analyzed up to now include a number of different important classes of antibiotics. They include primarily macrolides, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, sulfanilamides, and quinolones to name just a few [14,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Erythromycin-H 2 O up to 287 [34,35] up to 49 [36] up to 6000 up to 1700 [8] up to 190 [33] up to 15.9 [37] up to 220 [38] up to 400 [30] Clarithromycin up to 328 up to 65 [34,35] up to 240 up to 260 [8] up to 37 [33] up to 20.3 [37] up to 20.3 [39] up to 38 [30] Roxithromycin up to 68 [30] up to 72 [34,35] up to 26 [36] References up to 1000 up to 560 [8] up to 14 [33] up to 180 [38] up to 350 [31] Chinolones Fluorchinolone up to 100 up to 5 [32] Fluorchinolone up to 106 up to 19 [34,35] Ciprofloxacin 9 [33] up to 30 [38] up to 26.2 [37] up to 1300 [31] up to 26 [39] Norfloxacin up to 120 [38] Ofloxacin up to 82 [30] 20 [33] Sulfonamides Sulfamethoxazole up to 370 [...…”

Levels, distributions and sources of veterinary antibiotics in the sediments of the Bohai Sea in China and surrounding estuaries

“…It was reported that over thirty-five main rivers surrounding the Bohai Sea were severely polluted (Jun, 2007;Mao et al, 2009) and transported 36% of wastewaters and 47% of the solid pollutants to the Bohai Sea (Wang and Wang, 2007). Increasing use of antibiotics in aquaculture is another important source for the marine environment (Jia et al, 2011;Kümmerer, 2009;Martins et al, 2008;Minh et al, 2009;Wille et al, 2010;Xu et al, 2007;Zou et al, 2011). The Bohai Sea is the only continental sea in China and has a low exchange rate of seawater, resulting in the long-term residence of pollutants in the sea .…”

Genotoxicity of quinolones: Substituents contribution and transformation products QSAR evaluation using 2D and 3D models

“…In raw sewages and the secondary effluents from sewage treatment plants, 10 quinolones antibiotics were found and the concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 2.6 lg/L and 0.05 to 1.0 lg/L, respectively (Tong et al, 2011;Jia et al, 2012). It is worth noting that ciprofloxacin have also been detected in untreated hospital sewages at a level of 101 lg/L (Lindberg et al, 2004;Martins et al, 2008).…”