The efficiency of the conventional wastewater treatment plant in antibiotics removal and the determination of their concentration in Ekbatan and Southern Tehran wastewater treatment plants: a case report
R Mirzaei,
M Yunesian,
AR Mesdaghinia,
S Nasseri,
M Gholami,
E Jalilzadeh,
Sh Shoeibi
Affiliations
R Mirzaei
Center for Water Quality Research (CWQR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
M Yunesian
Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Research Methodology and Data Analysis, Institute for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
AR Mesdaghinia
Center for Water Quality Research (CWQR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
S Nasseri
Center for Water Quality Research (CWQR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
M Gholami
Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
E Jalilzadeh
Water and Wastewater Company, Department of Water and Wastewater Quality Control Laboratory, Tehran, Iran
Sh Shoeibi
Food and Drug Reference Control Laboratories Center, Food and Drug Organization, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran
Background and Objective: Antibiotics are a group of emerging contaminants in the aquatic environment. Antibiotic residues threaten the human health and ecosystem in the low concentrations found in the environment. Hence, the present work has been conducted to investigate the occurrence and removal efficiency of most prescribed antibiotics including amoxicillin, penicillin, cefixime, cephalexin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and azithromycin detected in two urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Tehran. Materials and Methods: The present work is an applied research based on USEPA method no. 1694, to investigate pharmaceuticals residues in water by HPLC/MS/MS in year 2016. The differences between target antibiotics residues were investigated statistically. After the calculation of the removal efficiencies, the normality of the data was assessed. Then, parametric and non-parametric tests were used to compare the removal efficiencies in both WWTPs. Results: There was not a significant difference between the influent and effluent concentrations of cefixime and azithromycin (in Ekbatan WWTP) and cefixime (in southern Tehran WWTP). There is a significant difference between the removal efficiencies of cephalexin (p=0.005) and erythromycin (p=0.002) in two WWTPs. The Highest median removal efficiencies were observed for cephalexin 94.41 and 99.47 in Ekbatan WWTP and southern Tehran WWTP, respectively. Conclusion: In addition to the type of treatment processes, it is physicochemical properties of the selected compound has a significant influence on removal efficiencies.
