Abstract

Seasonal removal efficiency of 16 pharmaceuticals and personal care products was monitored in a wastewater treatment plant in esk, Budjovice, Czech Republic, over a period of 1 year (total amount of samples, n = 272). The studied compounds included four UV filters, three analgesics/anti-inflammatory drugs and nine anti-hypertensive/cardiovascular drugs. In most cases, elimination of the substances was incomplete, and overall removal rates varied strongly from -38 to 100 %. Therefore, it was difficult to establish a general trend for each therapeutic group. Based on the removal efficiencies (REs) over the year, three groups of target compounds were observed. A few compounds (benzophenon-1, valsartan, isradipine and furosemide) were not fully removed, but their REs were greater than 50 %. The second group of analytes, consisting of 2-phenylbenzimidazole-5-sulfonic acid, tramadol, sotalol, metoprolol, atenolol and diclofenac, showed a very low RE (lower than 50 %). The third group of compounds showed extremely variable RE (benzophenon-3 and benzophenon-4, codeine, verapamil, diltiazem and bisoprolol). There were significant seasonal trends in the observed REs, with reduced efficiencies in colder months.

Keywords

Removal efficiency; Pharmaceuticals; Wastewater; Seasonal variation; UV filters; Anti-hypertensive/cardiovascular drugs

Published in

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
2014, Volume: 21, number: 12, pages: 7578-7585
Publisher: SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2654-9

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/84673