Pharmaceutical Residues Affecting the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Kristianstads Vattenrike Wetlands: Sources and Sinks

Abstract

This study is the first to investigate the pharmaceutical burden from point sources affecting the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Kristianstads Vattenrike, Sweden. The investigated Biosphere Reserve is a >1000 km2 wetland system with inflows from lakes, rivers, leachate from landfill, and wastewater-treatment plants (WWTPs). We analysed influent and treated wastewater, leachate water, lake, river, and wetland water alongside sediment for six model pharmaceuticals. The two WWTPs investigated released pharmaceutical residues at levels close to those previously observed in Swedish monitoring exercises. Compound-dependent WWTP removal efficiencies ranging from 12 to 100 % for bendroflumethiazide, oxazepam, atenolol, carbamazepine, and diclofenac were observed. Surface-water concentrations in the most affected lake were ≥100 ng/L for the various pharmaceuticals with atenolol showing the highest levels (>300 ng/L). A small risk assessment showed that adverse single-substance toxicity on aquatic organisms within the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is unlikely. However, the effects of combinations of a large number of known and unknown pharmaceuticals, metals, and nutrients are still unknown.

Total Release of 21 Indicator Pharmaceuticals Listed by the Swedish Medical Products Agency from Wastewater Treatment Plants to Surface Water Bodies in the 1.3 Million Populated County Skåne (Scania), Sweden

“…In Northeastern Scania, Kristianstad WWTP and Gärds Köpinge WWTP were both included. Both are situated in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Area Kristianstads Vattenrike [ 67 ] and connected to the basin of the Helge Å river, as described in more detail in our previous paper [ 68 ]. Kristianstad WWTP discharges wastewater into a 1500 m long canal, that ends in the Hammarsjön lake.…”

Extraction Efficiency of a Commercial Espresso Machine Compared to a Stainless-Steel Column Pressurized Hot Water Extraction (PHWE) System for the Determination of 23 Pharmaceuticals, Antibiotics and Hormones in Sewage Sludge

“…More than 1000 different active pharmaceuticals ingredients (APIs) are today used in Sweden [1]. The release of APIs into the water environment has been a subject of research for more than 30 years [2], and their ubiquitous occurrence at varying concentration levels have been shown in wastewater, surface water, sediment, groundwater and drinking water [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Large research resources have been spent worldwide on investigating the occurrence of pharmaceutical residues in the water phase, a significantly smaller proportion resources of these compounds' presence in sewage sludge [10].…”

“…In their pioneering work, performed on their in-house constructed equipment using stainless-steel columns, they found an increase in solubility of non-polar organics such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water with increasing temperature. The basic experimental set-up presented by Hawthorne and co-workers [24] has previously been used by us for the extraction of APIs from sediment [9], using a stainless-steel column Pressurized Hot Water Extraction system (PHWE method). This system and methodology was applied in this work as a reference methodology using a temperature of 150 • C as it has previously been shown that temperatures exceeding 100 • C has a very positive effect on extraction efficiency for pharmaceuticals in solid matrices [25].…”