Abstract
The fate of pharmaceuticals during the treatment of effluents is of major concern since they are not completely degraded and because of their persistence and mobility in environment. Indeed, even at low concentrations, they represent a risk to aquatic life and human health. In this work, fourteen pharmaceuticals were monitored in a constructed wetland wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) assessed in both influent and effluent samples. The basic water quality parameters were evaluated, and the removal efficiency of pharmaceutical, potential for bioaccumulation, and the impact of WWTP were assessed using Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) and biofilms. The pharmaceutical compounds were quantified by High Performance Liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The sampling campaign was carried out during winter (July/2018) and summer (January/2019). The WWTP performed well regarding the removal of TSS, COD, and BOD5 and succeeded to eliminate a significant part of the organic and inorganic pollution present in domestic wastewater but has low efficiency regarding the removal of pharmaceutical compounds. Biofilms were shown to interact with pharmaceuticals and were reported to play a role in their capture from water. The antibiotics were reported to display a high risk for aquatic organisms.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil) fellowships awarded to D.S. Rheinheimer and Région Nouvelle Aquitaine.
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This research was supported by CNPq (Project Universal 458678/2014-7), Finep/Fepagro (Project Mais Agua), European Community (FEDER) and Région Nouvelle Aquitaine.
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Jocelina Paranhos Rosa de Vargas, Danilo Rheinheimer and Delmira Wolff participated in the conception and design of the work. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Jocelina Paranhos Rosa de Vargas, Marília Camotti Bastos, Jèrôme Labanowski, Maha Al Badany and Rolando Gonzaléz. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jocelina Paranhos Rosa de Vargas. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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De Vargas, J.P.R., Bastos, M.C., Al Badany, M. et al. Pharmaceutical compound removal efficiency by a small constructed wetland located in south Brazil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 30955–30974 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12845-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12845-6