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Pharmaceuticals and consumer products in four wastewater treatment plants in urban and suburb areas of Shanghai

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Abstract

Ten pharmaceuticals and two consumer products were investigated in four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Shanghai, China. The concentrations of target compounds in the wastewater influents ranged from below the limit of quantification (LOQ) to 9340 ng/L, with the frequency of detection of 31–100 %, and the removal efficiencies were observed to be −82 to 100 % in the four WWTPs. Concentrations of most target compounds (i.e. diclofenac, caffeine, metoprolol, sulpiride) in the wastewater influents were around three to eight times higher in urban WWTPs than in suburb ones, probably due to the different population served and lifestyles. Mean concentrations of target compounds in the wastewater influent generally decreased by 5–76 % after rainfall due to the dilution of raw sewage by rainwater, which infiltrated into the sewer system. In the WWTPs located in the suburb area, the increased flow of wastewater influent led to a shortened hydraulic retention time (HRT) and decreased removal efficiencies of some compounds. On the contrary, the influence of rainfall was not significant on the removal efficiencies of investigated compounds in urban WWTPs, probably due to the almost unchanged influent flow, good removal performance, or bypass system employed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (No. 51208199, No. 51408425), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2013T60429), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, China (No. PCRRG 11017), and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20130072120033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Qian Sui, Dan Wang, Xuqi Cao, Zhaofu Qiu & Shuguang Lu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wentao Zhao

  3. School of Environment, THU-VEOLIA Joint Research Center for Advanced Environmental Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jun Huang & Gang Yu

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  1. Qian Sui
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  2. Dan Wang
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  3. Wentao Zhao
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  4. Jun Huang
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  5. Gang Yu
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  6. Xuqi Cao
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  7. Zhaofu Qiu
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Correspondence to Shuguang Lu.

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Responsible editor: Leif Kronberg

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Sui, Q., Wang, D., Zhao, W. et al. Pharmaceuticals and consumer products in four wastewater treatment plants in urban and suburb areas of Shanghai. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 6086–6094 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3793-8

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