Evaluation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products with emphasis on anthelmintics in human sanitary waste, sewage, hospital wastewater, livestock wastewater and receiving water.
We investigated 33 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) with emphasis on anthelmintics and their metabolites in human sanitary waste treatment plants (HTPs), sewage treatment plants (STPs), hospital wastewater treatment plants (HWTPs), livestock wastewater treatment plants (LWTPs), river water and seawater. PPCPs showed the characteristic specific occurrence patterns according to wastewater sources. The LWTPs and HTPs showed higher levels (maximum 3000 times in influents) of anthelmintics than other wastewater treatment plants, indicating that livestock wastewater and human sanitary waste are one of principal sources of anthelmintics. Among anthelmintics, fenbendazole and its metabolites are relatively high in the LWTPs, while human anthelmintics such as albendazole and flubendazole are most dominant in the HTPs, STPs and HWTPs. The occurrence pattern of fenbendazole's metabolites in water was different from pharmacokinetics studies, showing the possibility of transformation mechanism other than the metabolism in animal bodies by some processes unknown to us. The river water and seawater are generally affected by the point sources, but the distribution patterns in some receiving water are slightly different from the effluent, indicating the influence of non-point sources.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea.
Won-Jin
WJ
Sim
Hee-Young
HY
Kim
Sung-Deuk
SD
Choi
Jung-Hwan
JH
Kwon
Jeong-Eun
JE
Oh
D000818:Animals; D000871:Anthelmintics / Q000032:analysis*; D003358:Cosmetics / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D058751:Livestock; D008506:Medical Waste / Q000032:analysis; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis*; D056910:Republic of Korea; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D012623:Seawater / Q000032:analysis; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
D000871:Anthelmintics; D003358:Cosmetics; D008506:Medical Waste; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical