bbk 000000

UDC 628.16/.3:615.31

Kofman V. Ya.

Pharmaceuticals in natural, drinking and wastewater
(review)

Summary

The presence of pharmaceuticals in the natural water environment is becoming a subject of focused attention. For the moment more than 180 pharmaceuticals (pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, beta-blockers, contrast agents, Lipid-lowering agents, psychiatric medicines, hormones and antiseptics) and their metabolites that keep bioacti­vity have been registered in the water environment in many countries. Most often detected among them are diclofenac, carbamazepin, clofibric acid, ibuprofen, bizafibrate, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, phenazone, ketoprofen, roxithromycin, triclozan, iopromide. The sources of pharmaceuticals ending up in municipal wastewater are residential sector, medical institutions, pharmaceutical factories, animal clinics and live stock breeding complexes. The concentration of separate pharmaceuticals can reach 40 µg/l. At the traditional wastewater treatment facilities pharmaceuticals can be removed in the process of biodegradation/biotransformation and activated sludge adsorption. However, the efficiency of removing many of them is typically low. The concentration of certain pharmaceuticals in surface waters can reach in average 10 µg/l, in underground waters – 1 µg/l. This results in bioaccumulation of most common medicines in the tissue of fish and other aquatic organisms. In the process of drinking water purification pharmaceuticals are removed in the processes of coagulation, filtration, activated carbon adsorption, chlorination and ozonation. Quite a number of medicines cannot be completely eliminated. As a result in many countries they are detected in drinking water in concentrations from several nanograms to 1 µg/l. For the moment there is a lack of reliable data on the toxicological effect of pharmaceuticals present in water environment; however this issue is extensively investigated.

Key words

potable water , wastewater , natural water , pharmaceuticals , toxicological effect , biodegradation , activated sludge adsorption