Removal and Yearly Variability of Selected Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Antibiotics in a Large-Scale Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant

Abstract

Due to their extremely consumption all over the world, pharmaceuticals are frequently detected in different water bodies, sediments, agricultural lands, plants, vegetables and even aquatic species (Ben et al., 2019; Tran et al., 2018). Presence of these emerging compounds with threatening concentrations almost in all different environmental matrices are mainly associated with wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Because, existing conventional WWTPs cannot act as a full barrier for complete elimination of pharmaceuticals similar to other micropollutant groups. Consequently, many of these pharmaceuticals pass into receiving water bodies along with discharged treated wastewaters with their known or unknown adverse effects both for ecosystems and human. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and antibiotics are the most consumed two important sub-groups of pharmaceuticals for the different purposes both in the field of human and veterinary medicine (Moreno-González et al., 2014). Primary objective of this study was to determine the occurrence levels and fate of six pharmaceuticals belong to the groups of NSAID and antibiotic in a conventional urban WWTP in consecutive years. Within this scope, acetaminophen and diclofenac in the group of NSAID and ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and erythromycin in the antibiotic group were investigated. Secondly, the annual changes of each studied pharmaceuticals in the same WWTP were compared in terms of both occurrence concentrations and removal efficiencies. Finally, the possible reasons of significant differences observed yearly regarding to the total removals of certain compounds were evaluated.