Occurrence and biodegradability studies of selected pharmaceuticals and personal care products in sewage effluent

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in effluent matrices: A survey of transformation and removal during wastewater treatment and implications for wastewater management

“…In particular, it is difficult to assess the biodegradation efficiency for new and untested compounds in the absence of analytical measurements or experimental investigation. Yu et al 33 compared biodegradation efficiencies predicted using the software package BIOWIN to PPCP removal measured in full-scale treatment plants and laboratory experiments, finding great discrepancies between predictions and measurements. Instead of ab initio predictions, we thus currently rely on empirical data, such as that presented here, to predict biodegradation efficiency during wastewater treatment.…”

Direct Detection of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products from Aqueous Samples with Thermally-Assisted Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

“…While these detection limits are lower than those previously reported for similar analyses [23], typical concentrations of PPCPs in environmental samples can range from low ppb in untreated sources like sewage effluent [32] to low or sub-ppt in processed water supplies and aquatic environments [11]. To allow trace analysis of unprepared aqueous samples with direct flow injection DESI-MS, detection limits would have to be reduced without prior preconcentration.…”

Occurrence, Ecotoxicology, and Treatment of Anticancer Agents as Water Contaminants

“…Surprisingly, 5-fluorouracil was not biodegradable in both tests, which was likely inhibited by antibiotics present in hospital wastewaters. An improved method similar to OECD 309 used by Yu et al [48] demonstrated an approximately 50% biodegradation of 5-fluorouracil. This finding was further supported by Mahnik et al [43] adopting a method using membrane bioreactor and radio-labelled substances.…”