Removal of antineoplastic drugs cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, and 5-fluorouracil and a vasodilator drug pentoxifylline from wastewaters by ozonation

Abstract

We investigated the ozonation of the antineoplastic drugs cyclophosphamide (CP), ifosfamide (IF), and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and of the vasodilator pentoxifylline (PEN) in distilled water, in pharmaceutical wastewater, and in hospital effluent at pH 5-11. Under an alkaline pH of 11, all of the target compounds rapidly degraded through the attack of hydroxyl radicals, which resulted in their complete removal within 5 min at an ozone supply rate of 3 g O3/h. Under acidic pH conditions, such as pH 5.6, CP and IF exhibited slower removal rates; however, compounds with unsaturated C-C bonds, such as 5-FU and PEN, were still removed at rapid rates under acidic conditions. Although the parent compounds were removed within minutes, the resulting ozonation byproducts were resistant to further ozonation and possessed increased Microtox acute toxicity. In distilled water, the resulting ozonation products exhibited minimal mineralization but high acute toxicity, whereas in naturally buffered pharmaceutical and hospital effluents, the byproducts were more amenable to removal and detoxification.

Ecotoxicity and genotoxicity of cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, their metabolites/transformation products and their mixtures

“…This study did not identify the TPs that were formed during ozonation. Since it was shown that CPCOOH is capable of growth inhibition of the test organism in the present study, it is possible that this TP was formed during the ozonation treatment and contributed to the overall toxicity as Lin et al (2015) reported. However, further studies are necessary to confirm these assumptions.…”

“…Therefore, a more rational approach is to evaluate the changes in the toxicity of sample before and after treatment (influent and effluent), which considers the change in the whole toxicity of the sample. Studies describing degradation of CP and IF reported either a lower or similar toxicity of treated samples in comparison to the untreated control (Delgado et al, 2011(Delgado et al, , 2010Hansel et al, 1996;Lin et al, 2015;Lutterbeck et al, 2015) with the exception of a recent study by (Lin et al, 2015b), who reported a slight increase in the acute toxicity of ozone treated samples containing either CP or IF.…”

Holistic sludge management through ozonation: A critical review

“…Ozonation has been utilised to eliminate TrOCs from water ,wastewater, and other liquid waste streams (e.g., reverse osmosis or RO concentrate) (Fujioka et al, 2014;Huber et al, 2003;Lin et al, 2014;Nakada et al, 2007;Snyder et al, 2006). Ozonation may result in up to99% TrOC removal efficiency depending on the type of contaminant and ozonation conditions (Table 6).…”

Occurrence of cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide in aqueous environment and their removal by biological and abiotic wastewater treatment processes

“…The results of several abiotic treatment studies using UV, UV and hydrogen peroxide (UV/H 2 O 2 ), ozone (O 3 ) and O 3 /H 2 O 2 to remove CP and studies using UV, UV/H 2 O 2 and O 3 to remove IF have been published (Chen et al, 2008;Fernández et al, 2010;Garcia-Ac et al, 2010;Kim and Tanaka, 2009;Kim et al, 2009aKim et al, , 2009bKöhler et al, 2012;Lester et al, 2011;Lin et al, 2014Lin et al, , 2015Lutterbeck et al, 2015;Wols et al, 2013Wols et al, , 2015. The removal of CP and IF by either UV or O 3 alone was disappointing, but by adding H 2 O 2 removal efficiency was substantially improved (up to 90%).…”

“…The removal of CP and IF by either UV or O 3 alone was disappointing, but by adding H 2 O 2 removal efficiency was substantially improved (up to 90%). With the exception of Kim et al (2009a), Köhler et al (2012) and Lin et al (2015) who used UV, UV/H 2 O 2 or O 3 to remove CP and/or IF from a wastewater, others used more simple aqueous matrices like deionised and drinking water. In addition, because CP and IF are only partially removed by existing abiotic wastewater treatment technologies, alternative technologies must be investigated.…”