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

dc.contributor.authorSantos, Lúcia
dc.contributor.authorGros, Meritxell
dc.contributor.authorRodriguez-Mozaz, Sara
dc.contributor.authorDelerue-Matos, Cristina
dc.contributor.authorPena, Angelina
dc.contributor.authorBarceló, Damià
dc.contributor.authorMontenegro, M. Conceição B. S. M.
dc.date.accessioned2014-01-22T11:15:28Z
dc.date.available2014-01-22T11:15:28Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.description.abstractThe impact of effluent wastewaters from four different hospitals: a university (1456 beds), a general (350 beds), a pediatric (110 beds) and a maternity hospital (96 beds), which are conveyed to the same wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), was evaluated in the receiving urban wastewaters. The occurrence of 78 pharmaceuticals belonging to several therapeutic classes was assessed in hospital effluents and WWTP wastewaters (influent and effluent) as well as the contribution of each hospital in WWTP influent in terms of pharmaceutical load. Results indicate that pharmaceuticals are widespread pollutants in both hospital and urban wastewaters. The contribution of hospitals to the input of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters widely varies, according to their dimension. The estimated total mass loadings were 306 g d− 1 for the university hospital, 155 g d− 1 for the general one, 14 g d− 1 for the pediatric hospital and 1.5 g d− 1 for the maternity hospital, showing that the biggest hospitals have a greater contribution to the total mass load of pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, analysis of individual contributions of each therapeutic group showed that NSAIDs, analgesics and antibiotics are among the groups with the highest inputs. Removal efficiency can go from over 90% for pharmaceuticals like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to not removal for β-blockers and salbutamol. Total mass load of pharmaceuticals into receiving surface waters was estimated between 5 and 14 g/d/1000 inhabitants. Finally, the environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals detected in hospital and WWTP effluents was assessed by means of hazard quotients toward different trophic levels (algae, daphnids and fish). Several pharmaceuticals present in the different matrices were identified as potentially hazardous to aquatic organisms, showing that especial attention should be paid to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, azithromycin and clarithromycin, since their hazard quotients in WWTP effluent revealed that they could pose an ecotoxicological risk to algae.por
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.077pt_PT
dc.identifier.issn0048-9697
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/3422
dc.language.isoengpor
dc.peerreviewedyespor
dc.publisherElsevierpor
dc.relation.ispartofseriesScience of the Total Environment; Vol. 461-462
dc.relation.publisherversionhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969713005111por
dc.subjectPharmaceuticalspor
dc.subjectHospital effluentpor
dc.subjectWastewaterspor
dc.subjectRemoval efficiencypor
dc.subjectEnvironmental risk assessmentpor
dc.titleContribution of hospital effluents to the load of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters: Identification of ecologically relevant pharmaceuticalspor
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.endPage316por
oaire.citation.startPage302por
oaire.citation.titleScience of the Total Environmentpor
oaire.citation.volumeVol. 461-462por
person.familyNameDelerue-Matos
person.givenNameCristina
person.identifier.ciencia-id9A1A-43FB-5C27
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-3924-776X
person.identifier.ridD-4990-2013
person.identifier.scopus-author-id6603741848
rcaap.rightsopenAccesspor
rcaap.typearticlepor
relation.isAuthorOfPublication09f6a7bd-2f15-42b0-adc5-04bd22210519
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery09f6a7bd-2f15-42b0-adc5-04bd22210519

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