Ecotoxicological risk of pharmaceuticals from wastewater treatment plants in Korea: Occurrence and toxicity to Daphnia magna

Abstract

The overall ecotoxicological effect of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) detected in the effluents of Korean wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to Daphnia magna was investigated using biological and chemical analyses. The bioassay results showed median lethal concentrations and no-observed-effect concentrations ranging from a few to tens of ppm levels for nine PhACs in 48-h acute and 21-d chronic tests. The mixture effects of pharmaceuticals also were examined by other acute and chronic tests, which showed no significant toxicity despite a slightly increased combined effect of approximately twofold. The residual concentrations of nine PhACs were analyzed at concentrations ranging from 10 ng/L to 89 microg/L in the influents and from 10 ng/L to 11 microg/L in the effluents from four metropolitan cities in South Korea between January and November of 2004. Through repeated investigations of the influents and the effluents from different WWTPs, relatively higher removal efficiencies (23.9-91.3%) compared with those of previous surveys performed in other countries were observed for most pharmaceuticals, with the exception of acetaminophen (8.7%). The present study showed no significant risk effects of the effluents from WWTPs containing pharmaceuticals (i.e., hazard quotient < 1), even at the 95th percentile contamination range, although a risk assessment factor of 1,000 was applied. Therefore, it can be concluded that the potential risk of pharmaceuticals should be monitored carefully with more bioassay data, because many uncertainties still exist in the determination and toxicity of metabolites in water environments. No significant risk was observed, however, from the selected PhACs in the effluents from WWTPs discharged into surface waters.

Paracetamol in the environment and its degradation by microorganisms

“…The median concentration of paracetamol detected in surface waters is 0.055±0.051 μgL −1 (Wiegel et al 2004;Bound and Voulvoulis 2006;Gros et al 2006). In raw wastewater, paracetamol was detected at a median concentration of 48±75 μgL −1 (Han et al 2006;Gomez et al 2007). The median concentration of paracetamol detected in finished wastewater is 0.76±0.96 μgL −1 (Gros et al 2006;Han et al 2006;Gomez et al 2007).…”

“…In raw wastewater, paracetamol was detected at a median concentration of 48±75 μgL −1 (Han et al 2006;Gomez et al 2007). The median concentration of paracetamol detected in finished wastewater is 0.76±0.96 μgL −1 (Gros et al 2006;Han et al 2006;Gomez et al 2007). The widespread use of acetaminophen raises the concern of whether or not the compound persists during treatment of wastewater and drinking water.…”

Occurrence of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in Surface Water from Mankyung River, South Korea

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] These compounds are used as pharmaceutical ingredients in approximately 3000 different products licensed in the European Union (EU) to date. 9) Han et al 12) reported concentrations of various pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) influents and effluents from South Korea during their 2004 survey. For example, diclofenac (mean 2.59 µg/l), ibuprofen (mean 0.30 µg/l), carbamazepine (mean 1.84 µg/l) and salicylic acid (mean 23.92 µg/l) were detected at high concentrations in WWTP influents.…”

The effects of the psychiatric drug carbamazepine on freshwater invertebrate communities and ecosystem dynamics

“…However, it is not likely that the carbamazepine treatments were acutely toxic to D. pulex (LC50 > 100 mg/L; Han et al 2006). Similar studies focused on pesticides have observed an increase in zooplankton diversity due to declines in Daphnia abundance; an organism that commonly depresses populations of small zooplankton taxa (Hanazato 1994).…”