Is the reliability of wastewater-based epidemiology affected by season? Comparative analysis with pharmaceuticals prescriptions.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been already proposed by several authors for estimating the consumption of drugs, mainly the illicit ones. However, not much information is available about the actual reliability of this tool given the absence of comparison with the actual consumption. This work aims to evaluate the reliability of the WBE as a tool for estimating the consumption of pharmaceuticals in urban area. Measured consumption back-calculated with a WBE approach was compared with prescription of pharmaceutical products as "control." Moreover, seasonal influence on (i) pharmaceutical consumption, (ii) load of pharmaceutical products in the sewer system, and (iii) reliability of WBE was evaluated. Ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, metoprolol, carbamazepine, and citalopram were estimated by WBE with a difference respect to the "control" value lower than 0.2 order of magnitude while only trimethoprim and sotalol exceeded the 0.5 order of magnitude of difference but below the 1 order of magnitude. Sedatives were the best represented by WBE (on average 0.15 order of magnitude of difference compared to prescription data). However, further studies are suggested to fully estimate the influence of the type of APs on the reliability of the WBE. Seasonal patterns were found for the load of ciprofloxacin in the sewer and for the consumption of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim by population but seasonal changes did not have a significant impact (p > 0.05) on the reliability of WBE. Despite some gaps remained to optimize the reliability of the tool, WBE can be considered a valid method to estimate the consumption of prescribed drugs from the analysis of the sewer system.

Pharmaceutical and narcotics monitoring in Brno wastewater system and estimation of seasonal effect on the abuse of illicit drugs by a wastewater-based epidemiology approach.

The presence of pharmaceuticals (PHA) and narcotics (NAR) in wastewater (WW) has attracting growing interest due to concern for aquatic environment and the possibility to exploit their presence to estimate drug consumption by population. This work aims to (i) quantify PHA and NAR in the WW of the Brno metropolitan area, (ii) determine the effectiveness of the current conventional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), and (iii) estimate the illicit drug (ID) consumption. 23 PHA and 9 NAR were frequently detected in the untreated WW and studied for their removal. One year monitoring was carried out to highlight a possible seasonal pattern with PHA and NAR load in WW, WWTP effectiveness, and illicit consumption. Results highlighted that the most abundant PHA and NAR were caffeine (73.9 ± 6.9 µg L-1) and methamphetamine (2.3 ± 0.1 µg L-1) while oxazepam (0.13 ± 0.05 µg L-1) and EDDP (0.02 ± 0.01 µg L-1) were the lowest ones, respectively. Only paracetamol, caffeine, atenolol, ciprofloxacin, amphetamine, cocaine, morphine, and benzoylecgonine exhibited a high biodegradability being removed almost completely (> 90 %). A predominant illicit use of methamphetamine was estimated (17 ± 0.6 doses 1000.inh-1 d-1) that might suggest a higher number of consumers than previous official estimation. A lower abuse of cocaine (2.7 ± 0.5 doses 1000.inh-1 d-1), amphetamine (2.2 ± 0.3 doses 1000.inh-1 d-1), methadone (1.1 ± 0.2 doses 1000.inh-1 d-1), heroin (0.9 ± 0.2 doses 1000.inh-1 d-1), and MDMA (0.7 ± 0.1 doses 1000.inh-1 d-1) was found. A seasonality pattern was highlighted for some PHA and NAR influent load and removal, and, about ID consumption, only for heroin and methadone. These results will be useful for water utilities, to enhance the knowledge about the presence and removal of PHA and NAR, and local and national authorities to evaluate and counteract the problem of ID abuse.

Performance study of an innovative concept of hybrid constructed wetland-extensive green roof with growing media amended with recycled materials.

Implementation of green roofs requires a large amount of primary material, especially for constructing the growing media layer. In addition, irrigation of green roofs with potable water is uneconomical and unsustainable. The novel hybrid green roof system proposed in this paper is in line with the principles of circular economy as it incorporates recycled materials into green roof growing media and greywater for irrigation. Two experimental beds were built to evaluate the concept of treating greywater in a constructed wetland prior to using it to irrigate a dual-layer extensive green roof. The growing media in both two extensive green roof beds contained ca. 37.5% by volume of recycled crushed building rubble containing a large proportion of brick. One of the two beds additionally contained 9.5% by volume of sewage sludge-based biochar. The concept of the hybrid roof and novel growing media was evaluated based on laboratory analysis of the growing media and on onsite measurements of hydraulic and thermal performance. The growing media amended with recycled materials developed in this study had hydrophysical properties comparable to commercially available growing media without recycled materials. Observations made during one vegetation season from June to October and a ten day-intensive water quality monitoring campaign during September 2020 showed that the constructed wetland significantly reduced total nitrogen and orthophosphate concentrations in pre-treated greywater. Due to the irrigation method employed, in which water flowed predominantly through drainage mats below the growing media, nutrient-leaching by the irrigation water was avoided. Concentrations of nutrients in the effluent were observed to increase only in response to precipitation. The temperature peak of the bottom green roof layer was shifted by almost 9 h from the peak in air temperature, and temperature fluctuations were significantly reduced. Vegetation on the bed amended with biochar demonstrated more vigorous growth due to available nutrients in the biochar which increased the rate of temperature-reducing evapotranspiration. More water evapotranspirated more water, which provided more water retention capacity confirmed by a lower runoff coefficient. Simple storage routing hydraulic modeling of hybrid green roof runoff using a nonlinear reservoir was performed.

Food and agricultural wastes-derived biochars in combination with mineral fertilizer as sustainable soil amendments to enhance soil microbiological activity, nutrient cycling and crop production.

The ever-increasing human population associated with high rate of waste generation may pose serious threats to soil ecosystem. Nevertheless, conversion of agricultural and food wastes to biochar has been shown as a beneficial approach in sustainable soil management. However, our understanding on how integration of biochar obtained from different wastes and mineral fertilizers impact soil microbiological indicators is limited. Therefore, in the present study the effects of agricultural (AB) and food waste derived (FWB) biochars with and without mineral fertilizer (MF) on crop growth and soil health indicators were compared in a pot experiment. In particular, the impacts of applied amendments on soil microbiological health indicators those related to microbial extracellular (C, N and P acquiring) enzymes, soil basal as well as different substrate induced respirations along with crop's agronomic performance were explored. The results showed that compared to the control, the amendment with AB combined with MF enhanced the crop growth as revealed by higher above and below ground biomass accumulation. Moreover, both the biochars (FWB and AB) modified soil chemical properties (pH and electric conductivity) in the presence or absence of MF as compared to control. However, with the sole application of MF was most influential strategy to improve soil basal and arginin-induced respiration as well as most of the soil extracellular enzymes, those related to C, N and P cycling. Use of FWB resulted in enhanced urease activity. This suggested the role of MF and FWB in nutrient cycling and plant nutrition. Thus, integration of biochar and mineral fertilizers is recommended as an efficient and climate smart package for sustainable soil management and crop production.