Spatial Distribution and Risk Assessment of Antibiotics in 15 Pharmaceutical Plants in the Pearl River Delta
Yuanfei Liu,
Xiaoxia Shi,
Xiaoxia Chen,
Ping Ding,
Lijuan Zhang,
Jian Yang,
Jun Pan,
Yunjiang Yu,
Jinhua Wu,
Guocheng Hu
Affiliations
Yuanfei Liu
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Xiaoxia Shi
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Xiaoxia Chen
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Ping Ding
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Lijuan Zhang
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Jian Yang
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Jun Pan
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Yunjiang Yu
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Jinhua Wu
School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
Guocheng Hu
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Pharmaceutical plants are an essential source of antibiotics emitted into the aqueous environment. The monitoring of target antibiotics in pharmaceutical plants through various regions is vital to optimize contaminant release. The occurrence, distribution, removal, and ecological risk of 30 kinds of selected antibiotics in 15 pharmaceutical plants in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) were investigated in this study. Lincomycin (LIN) showed the highest concentration (up to 56,258.3 ng/L) in the pharmaceutical plant influents from Zhongshan city. Norfloxacin (NFX) showed a higher detection frequency than other antibiotics. In addition, the spatial distribution of antibiotics in pharmaceutical plants showed significant differences, with higher concentrations of total antibiotics found in pharmaceutical plant influents in Shenzhen City than those of different regions in PRD. The treatment processes adopted by pharmaceutical plants were commonly ineffective in removing antibiotics, with only 26.7% of antibiotics being effectively removed (average removal greater than 70%), while 55.6% of antibiotics had removal rates of below 60%. The anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (AAO)-membrane bioreactor (MBR) combined process exhibited better treatment performance than the single treatment process. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ofloxacin (OFL), erythromycin-H2O (ETM-H2O), sulfadiazine (SDZ), sulfamethazine (SMZ), norfloxacin (NFX), and ciprofloxacin (CIP) in pharmaceutical plant effluents posed high or moderate ecological risk and deserve particular attention.
