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Anionic surfactants monitoring in healthcare facilities — a case of Belo Horizonte City, Brazil

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Abstract

Surfactants are substances that when in aquatic environments can cause negative impacts. Hospital effluents carry numerous chemicals daily, including surfactants, used in sanitization and disinfection procedures. These chemicals are found in the effluents and reach water bodies due to a lack of proper removal in the wastewater treatment plants. The present study investigated data about wastewater monitored from healthcare facilities located in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, focusing on anionic surfactants. The results showed 72 establishments monitoring this parameter, resulting in a median concentration of 1 mg L−1 and 2.49 mg L−1 mean value of anionic surfactants, between 2007 and 2019. It is also observed in the correlation between surfactants and oils in all healthcare establishment sizes, except for the medium-sized. Although anionic surfactants are the most used in cleaning product formulations, cationic surfactants still do not have specific legislation in the studied country that dictates a limit for discharge into sewage; consequently, they are not routinely monitored in effluents. However, these compounds are used in the formulation of routine hospital products.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available (specific information about healthcare establishments) but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank COPASA for providing the data and information to carry out this study.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: financial support provided by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).

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  1. Research and Development Department, Ezequiel Dias Foundation, Conde Pereira Carneiro St, 80 Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Graziela Torres Trajano, Olívia Maria S. Ribeiro Vasconcelos, Luiz Carlos Moutinho Pataca & Marcos Paulo Gomes Mol

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  1. Graziela Torres Trajano
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  2. Olívia Maria S. Ribeiro Vasconcelos
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Conception and design: OMSRV and MPGM. Data analysis: GTT, OMSRV, LCMP, and MPGM. Manuscript drafting: GTT, OMSRV, and LCMP. Manuscript revision: MPGM. Final version approval of the manuscript: All the authors.

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Correspondence to Marcos Paulo Gomes Mol.

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Trajano, G.T., Vasconcelos, O.M.S.R., Pataca, L.C.M. et al. Anionic surfactants monitoring in healthcare facilities — a case of Belo Horizonte City, Brazil. Environ Monit Assess 194, 248 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09877-x

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