Screening and Seasonal Behavior of Analgesics, Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs, and Antibiotics in Two Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants.

Pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) belonging to analgesics, antibiotics, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) therapeutic classes were monitored in wastewater influents and effluents from two Portuguese urban wastewater treatment plants (UWWTPs) for 24 months. Both facilities were chosen due to their effluents are discharged in highly touristic and sensitive areas, Tagus river and Ria Formosa coastal lagoon, respectively. Target PhACs, acetaminophen, diclofenac, ibuprofen, naproxen, sulfadiazine, and sulfamethoxazole were measured using solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled to liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). PhACs occurrence in the influents was higher than 98%, with acetaminophen presenting the highest concentrations, with values between 16.3 µg/L and 124 µg/L. In the effluents, distinct behavior was observed with diclofenac and sulfamethoxazole showing recalcitrant characteristics, whereas acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and naproxen showed removal efficiencies above 95%. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen amount in influents showed consistently higher concentration levels in autumn (in Beirolas and Faro Nw UWWTPs) and winter (only in Beirolas UWWTP) seasons. These seasonal trends were observed to a greater extent in Beirolas UWWTP than in Faro Nw UWWTP. This study enabled the comprehensive definition of a behavior pattern for these target contaminants, contributing to better characterization and build-up a library of PhACs occurrence. It also allowed a robust seasonal profiling of the target compounds due to the high number of samples analyzed by each season and a longer monitoring campaign, making the obtained results more significant.

Chemical and toxicological characterisation of anticancer drugs in hospital and municipal wastewaters from Slovenia and Spain.

Anticancer drugs are continuously released into hospital and urban wastewaters, where they, most commonly, undergo conventional treatment in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Wastewaters contain complex mixtures of substances including parent compounds, their metabolites and transformation products (TPs). In this study, samples of hospital effluents and WWTP influents and effluents from Slovenia and Spain were analyzed for twenty-two selected anticancer drugs, their metabolites and transformation products. Acute and chronic toxicity tests were performed on the crustacean Ceriodaphnia dubia, genotoxicity was determined with Tradescantia and Allium cepa micronucleus (MN) assays and in vitro comet assay in zebrafish (Danio rerio) liver cell line (ZFL cells). Sixty of the two hundred-twenty determinations revealed detectable levels of anticancer drug residues. Among the targeted compounds, platinum based were most frequently detected (90%). Furthermore, erlotinib was detected in 80%, cyclophosphamide and tamoxifen in 70% and methotrexate in 60% of the samples. Seven of ten samples were toxic to C. dubia after acute exposure, whereas after chronic exposure all samples reduced reproduction of C. dubia at high sample dilutions. Allium cepa proved insensitive to the potential genotoxicity of the tested samples, while in Tradescantia increased MN frequencies were induced by a hospital effluent and WWTP influents. In ZFL comet assay all but one sample induced a significant increase of DNA strand breaks. Correlations of chemotherapeutics or their TPs were detected for all bioassays except for Allium cepa genotoxicity test, however for each test the highest correlations were found for different substances indicating differential sensitivities of the test organisms.