Removal of Pharmaceuticals in Sewage Treatment Plants in Italy

Abstract

A listing of "priority pharmaceuticals" for human use in Italy resulted in the selection of 26 pharmaceuticals, belonging to 11 therapeutic classes. They were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, their occurrence was assessed in six sewage treatment plants (STPs), and the loads and the removal rates (RR) were studied. Total loads ranged from 1.5 to 4.5 g/day/1000 inhabitants in influents and 1.0 and 3.0 g/day/1000 inhabitants in effluents. Total RR in STPs were mostly lower than 40%. Pharmaceuticals could be divided into three groups according to their behavior in STPs: one group with RR higher in summer than in winter, one group with RR similar in summer and winter, and a last group not removed. Last, we studied the distribution and fate of residual pharmaceuticals in the surface waters receiving the effluents of the STPs and identified degradation and sorption as the major factors affecting attenuation. Ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole (antibiotics), atenolol (cardiovascular drug), ibuprofen (antiinflammatory), furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide (diuretics), ranitidine (gastrointestinal drug), and bezafibrate (lipid regulator) were the most abundant residual drugs, thus those of environmental concern.

Contribution of hospital effluents to the load of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters: Identification of ecologically relevant pharmaceuticals

“…For instance, fluoroquinolones had the highest removal efficiency (70%), while all the other groups of antibiotics did not exceed 19%, or were not removed at all as was the case of trimethoprim. Our findings are in agreement with previous studies found in the scientific literature, where incomplete removal of a wide range of pharmaceuticals in conventional WWTPs has been described (Castiglioni et al, 2006;Jelic et al, 2011). Moreover, this was expected since removal of pharmaceuticals in conventional WWTP is generally due to the biological treatment, where biodegradation/biotransformation and sorption are the two main mechanisms occurring in the biological reactors.…”

“…Total mass loads detected were between 10 and 25 g/d/ 1000 inhabitants for WWTP influent and from 5 to 14 g/d/1000 inhabitants for WWTP effluent (Table 2). These values are higher than those reported for WWTPs in Italy (Castiglioni et al, 2006), Spain (Gros et al, 2007) and Sweden (Zorita et al, 2009), where total mass loads in WWTP influent ranged from 1.5 to 6.7 g/d/1000 inhabitants, while in effluents the levels went from 0.32 to 3 g/d/1000 inhabitants. Nevertheless, a much larger number of pharmaceuticals was included in this study (78 against 30, 28 and 13 in Italy, Spain and Sweden, respectively), which embraced most of the compounds previously reported in literature, together with the fact that the WWTPs studied in Italy, Spain and Sweden may not be influenced by discharges from hospitals.…”

Treatment options for wastewater effluents from pharmaceutical companies

“…While there are a number of limited studies on the removal efficiency of APIs from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, it is known that removal efficiency of municipal facilities is dependent on the APIs present in the wastewater (Urase et al, 2005). AS is an efficient method for the removal of some APIs, but not all from municipal facilities (Zwiener and Frimmel, 2003;Castiglioni et al, 2006;Watkinson et al, 2007). β-Lactam and quinlone drugs in particular appear to be susceptible to aerobic oxidation.…”

Ozonation of wastewater: Removal and transformation products of drugs of abuse

“…It is well known however, that the use of psychoactive substances is essentially universal and that they are one of the most recent additions to the list of contaminants of emerging concern in the environment (Boleda et al, 2009;Kasprzyk-Hordern et al, 2010). It is clear from the studies that have identified these compounds in wastewater effluents and surface waters at the nanogram and in some cases, microgram per liter level, that they and many of their main human metabolites, are ubiquitous in the environment (Baker and Kasprzyk-Hordern, 2011;Bartelt-Hunt et al, 2009;Bijlsma et al, 2012Bijlsma et al, , 2013Castiglioni et al, 2006a;Gheorghe et al, 2008;González-Mariño et al, 2011;Hummel et al, 2006;Jones-Lepp et al, 2004;Kasprzyk-Hordern et al, 2009;Metcalfe et al, 2010;Pedrouzo et al, 2011a;Postigo et al, 2011;Zuccato et al, 2005). In fact, these compounds, like many other contaminants of emerging concern have been shown to be resistant to physicochemical and biological treatment at WWTPs and are therefore continuously introduced into the aquatic environment (Boleda et al, 2009;Bolong et al, 2009;Chiaia et al, 2008;Huerta-Fontela et al, 2008;Pal et al, 2013;Postigo et al, 2010;Valcárcel et al, 2012;Yargeau et al, 2013;Zuccato et al, 2008).…”