Psychoactive pharmaceuticals in water

lecture

English

There is growing concern of presence and potential negative effects of pharmaceuticals even at trace concentration in the aquatic environment. Pharmaceutically active compounds and their metabolites enter the sewerage after disposal and excretion and are not efficiently removed by wastewater treatment plants. This problem was first highlighted in the 1970s in the US but the important knowledge on environmental contamination by those compounds grew in the mid-90s with advances in analytical techniques. Nowadays, a higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders leads to rising number of prescriptions for psychiatric pharmaceuticals, particularly antidepressants. Increased consumption is associated with higher environmental exposure and environmental risk. The study deals with selected antidepressants, hypnotics and anxiety-treating drugs and their interaction with activated sludge in municipal sewage treatment plant. The possible negative influence of these compounds on microorganisms of the activated sludge is investigated as well as the potential to remove them from water with some advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). AOPs are highly effective methods to degrade miscellaneous pharmaceutically active compounds.

water, wastewater, pharmaceuticals, antidepressants, activated sludge

VENSKÁ, P.; VÁVROVÁ, M.; REPKOVÁ, M.

14. 9. 2018