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Monitoring survey of caffeine in surface waters (Lis River) and wastewaters located at Leiria Town in Portugal

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Abstract

Investigation during 11-month period was performed to study the presence of caffeine in the Lis River in Leiria Town in Portugal, and a monitoring during 9-month period was realized to check the contribution of the human pollution of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that discharge their effluents to the studied river. The samples were collected in five sampling points along the river and in two influents and two effluents of the studied WWTPs. Caffeine was detected in all ninety-one collected samples. The caffeine concentration ranged from 25.3 to 321 ng/L in the river samples, from 112 to 1927 ng/L in the WWTP effluents, and from 9478 to 83,901 ng/L in the WWTP influents. The highest concentration in the river was detected in the two sampling points located after the effluent discharge points and reached 315 and 321 ng/L. Risk assessment was performed for three trophic levels using the risk quotient calculation and revealed that caffeine do not cause toxic effect on Daphnia magna and on fish but could be possibly toxic to algae. The results proved that caffeine can be an effective indicator of human-born pollution.

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Funding

The authors received funding from the EU and FCT/UEFISCDI/FORMAS for funding, in the frame of the collaborative international consortium REWATER financed under the ERA-NET Cofund WaterWorks2015 Call. This ERA-NET is an integral part of the 2016 Joint Activities developed by the Water Challenges for a Changing World Joint Programme Initiative (Water JPI). This work was also supported by UID/QUI/50006/2019 with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. REQUIMTE/LAQV, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Paula Paíga & Cristina Delerue-Matos

  2. CEAUL, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal and LEMA, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Sandra Ramos

  3. Águas do Centro Litoral, SA, Grupo Águas de Portugal, ETA da Boavista, Avenida Dr. Luís Albuquerque, 3030-410, Coimbra, Portugal

    Sandra Jorge

  4. Águas de Santo André, Cerca da Água, Rua dos Cravos, 7500-130, Vila Nova de Santo André, Portugal

    Jaime Gabriel Silva

  5. Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Jaime Gabriel Silva

Authors
  1. Paula Paíga
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  2. Sandra Ramos
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  3. Sandra Jorge
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  4. Jaime Gabriel Silva
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  5. Cristina Delerue-Matos
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Correspondence to Cristina Delerue-Matos.

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Paíga, P., Ramos, S., Jorge, S. et al. Monitoring survey of caffeine in surface waters (Lis River) and wastewaters located at Leiria Town in Portugal. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 33440–33450 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06168-w

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